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THE 


PROCEEDINGS 


CELEBRATION  BY  THE  PILGRIM  SOCIETY 

AT     PLYMOUTH, 

December  21,  1870, 

OF    THE 

CtDO  i^uuDrcD  and  fiftictl)  ^nnitcr^arr 

OF    THE 

LANDING    OF    THE    PILGRIMS. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

PRESS    OF    JOHN    WILSON    AND    SON. 
1871. 


"  We  have  come  to  this  Rock,  to  record  here  our  homage  Cor  our  rilgi-ii.i 
Fathers;  our  sympathy  in  their  sufferings;  our  gratitude  ("or  tlieir  hiijors;  our 
admiration  of  their  virtues;  our  veneration  for  their  piety;  atid  our  attacliment  to 
those  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  for  which  they  eucountered  the  dangers 
of  the  ocean,  the  storms  of  heaven,  the  violence  of  savages,  disea'^e,  exile,  and  fam- 
ine, to  enjo}'  and  establish."  — Wkbsteu. 


INTRODUCTION. 


^  I  ^HIS  Volume  has  been  prepared,  and  is  now  published, 
in  obedience  to  a  vote  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Pilgrim 
Society  passed  at  a  meeting  held  in  the  office  of  the  Register 
of  Deeds  at  Plymouth,  on  the  evening  of  Friday,  December 
30,  1870. 

At  that  meeting  it  was  voted  that  the  Vice-President 
of  the  Society  be  requested  to  prepare  and  publish  the 
proceedings  of  the  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  of.  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims ; 
and  that  the  Secretary,  William  S.  Danforth,  Esq.,  be 
directed  to  communicate  to  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop, 
of  Boston,  the  thanks  of  the  Trustees  for  the  able,  eloquent, 
and  instructive  oration  delivered  by  him  on  that  occasion, 
and  to  request  a  copy  for  publication. 

Plymouth,  January,  1871. 


OFFICERS    AND    TRUSTEES 


OP 


THE    PILGRIM     SOCIETY. 


Hon.  EDWARD   S.   TOBEY  .     . 


ex  oificto   Trustee. 


Utcc=^r£Siticnt. 
Hon.  WILLIAM   T.   DAVIS  .     .     . 


ex  officio    Trustee. 


S^ecretnru. 
WILLIAM  S.  DANFORTH,  Esq.    .     .     .     ex  officio   Trustee. 

QEreasurer. 
ISAAC   N.    STODDARD,  Esq ex  officio   Trustee. 


^Trustees. 


Hon.  CHARLES  G.   DAVIS. 

„     E.   C.  SHERMAN. 

„      NATHANIEL  B.  SHURTLEFF. 

„      GEORGE   S.    BOUTWELL. 
TIMOTHY   GORDON,   M.D. 
THOMAS  LORING,  Esq. 
SAMUEL  H.   DOT  EN,  Esq. 
CHARLES  0.  CHURCHILL,  Esq. 
GEORGE   G.   dyer,  Esq. 


WILLIAM  H.   WHITMAN,  Esq. 
WILLIAM   THOMAS,  Esq. 
ABRAHAM  JACKSON,  Esq. 
JAMES   W.    SEVER.  Esq. 
WILLIAM    SAVERY,  Esq. 
GEORGE   P.   HAYWARI),  Esq. 
BENJAMIN  HATHAWAY,  Esq. 
RICHARD   WARREN,  Esq. 
ELLIS  AMES,  Esq., 


ffi0mmitteE  of  Srrnnrfemcnts. 


William  T.  Davis,   Chairman. 
E.  C.  Sherman. 
William  H.  Whitman. 
Charles  G.  Davis. 
William  S.  Danforth. 
John  Morissey. 


Albert  Mason. 
Samuel  H.  Doten. 
Nathaniel  Brown. 
Richard  Warren,  New  York. 
Thomas  Russell,  Boston. 
Georc.e   r.   IIayward,  Boston. 


rRELlMlNARY    PROdEKDlNGS. 


A  T  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  held  at 
Pilgrmi  Hall,  in  Plymouth,  at  three  o'clock,  r.:M  ,  on 
Monday,  May  30,  1870,  it  was  voted  that  the  Vice-President, 
together  with  Isaac  N.  Stoddard,  Esq.,  William  H. 
Whitman,  Esq.,  and  Dr.  Timothy  Gordon,  be  a  Com- 
mittee to  consider  the  expediency  of  celebrating  the  Two 
Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims,  occurring  on  the  21st  of  December  following, 
and  report  at  an  adjourned  meeting.^ 

At  the  adjourned  meeting  held  at  the  same  place  on  the 
14th  of  June,  at  three  o'clock,  p.m.,  a  report  of  the  Committee 
recommending  the  Celebration  was  adopted,  and  a  vote  was 
passed  requesting  the  Trustees  to  make  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Trustees  held  at  the  Plymouth 
National  Bank  on  the  evening  of  July  5th,  at  eight  o'clock, 
it  was  unanimously  voted,  on  motion  of  Richard  Warren, 
Esq.,  that  a  Committee  —  consisting  of  the  President,  Vice- 
President,  and  Messrs.  Gordon,  Warren,  and  Ames  —  wait 
upon  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  of  Boston,  and  invite 
him  to  deliver  an  Oration  before  the  Society  on  the  21st  of 
December.^ 

At  a  meetinfj  of  the  Trustees  held  at  the  same  place  on  the 
evening  of  the  7th  of  September,  neither  the  President  nor 


8 


PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


Vice-President  being  present,  Richard  Warren,  Esq.,  was 
called  to  the  chair.  The  Committee  appointed  to  wait  on 
Mr.  WiNTiiROP  reported  his  acceptance  of  the  invitation  ; 
and  it  was  then  voted  that  a  "  Committee  of  five,  of  which 
the  Vice-President  shall  be  Chairman,  be  appointed  by  the 
Chairman  of  the  meeting,  which  shall  be  a  Committee  of 
Arrangements  to  make  preparations  for  the  Celebration,  with 
full  power  to  invite  guests,  appoint  committees,  and  do  all 
things  needful  and  fittinoj  for  the  occasion." 
The  Committee  as  appointed  consisted  of — 


William  T.  Davis,  Chamnan 
E.  C.  Sherman. 

William  S 


William  H.  Whitman. 
Chakles  G.  Davis. 
Danforth. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  held  at 
the  house  of  the  Chairman  on  the  evening  of  September 
27th,  it  was  voted  to  enlarge  the  Committee  by  the  addition 
to  their  number  of  — 


JoiIN  MORISSEY. 

Albert  Mason. 
Samuel  H.  Doten. 


Nathaniel  Brown. 
Richard  Warren,  New  York. 
Thomas  Russell,  Boston. 


George  P.  Hayward,  Boston. 

It  was  also  voted  to  invite  Albert  Mason,  Esq.,  to  act 
as  Chief  Marshal  on  the  day  of  the  Celebration ;  and  Wil- 
liam S.  Danforth,  Esq.,  was  appointed  Treasurer. 

^  It  was  further  voted  that  a  Finance  Committee  be 
appointed ;  and  the  following  gentlemen  were  selected  to 
act  on  that  Committee  :  — 


Geo.  F.  Weston,  Chairman. 
E.  C.  Turner. 
Charles  H.  Howland. 
T.  D.  Shumway. 
John  T.  Hall. 
Henry  Whiting,  Jr. 


Charles  C.  Doten. 
Benjamin  A.  Hathaway. 
John  H.  Harlow. 
Charles  O.  Churchill. 
L.  T.  Bobbins,  Jr. 
Richard  Warren,  New  York. 


George  P.  Hayward,  Boston. 


PRELIMINARY    PROCEEDINGS. 


A  Committee  of  Reception  was  also  appointed,  consisting 


of  the  following  gentlemen  : 

John  Morissey,  Chairman. 
Jacob  H.  Loud. 
Thomas  Loring. 
Daniel  E.  Damox. 
James  Bates. 
Isaac  N.  Stoddard. 
Jeremiah  Farris. 
Elliott  Russell. 

William 


R. 


Thomas  B.  Drew. 
William  H.  Nelson. 
William  Hedge. 
George  F.  Andrews. 
Charles  W.  Spooner. 
George  G.  Dyer. 
Gideon  Perkins. 
John  J.  Russell. 
Drew. 


It  was  further  voted  that  the  Committee  of  Arrangements 
act  as  a  General  Committee  for  the  ball,  with  which  it  was 
proposed  to  close  the  festivities  of  the  Celebration,  and  that 
a  board  of  Honorary  Managers  be  appointed,  consisting  of 
the  followinix  gentlemen  :  — 


Richard  Warren,  New  York. 
Thomas  Russell,  Boston. 
William  G.  Russell,  Boston. 
James  T.  Hayavard,  Boston. 
B.  W.  Harris,  Boston. 
James  H.  Harlow,  Middleboro'. 


J.  H.  Mitchell,  E.  Bridgewater. 
William  Savery,  Carver. 
William  L.  Reed,  Abington. 
George  W.  Wright,  Duxbury. 
C.  B.  H.  Fessenden,  N.  Bedford. 
Charles  F.  Swift,  Yarmouth. 


The  following  gentlemen  were  selected  as  Floor  Managers 


of  the  ball :  — 

Henry  G.  Parker,  Boston. 
Dwight  Faulkner. 
Francis  H.  Russell. 
B.  M.  Watson,  Jr. 
Benjamin  O.  Strong. 


William  P.  Stoddard. 
James  D.  Thurber. 
Henry  W.  Loring. 
Robert  B.  Churchill. 
Edward  W.  Russell,  New  York. 


Isaac  Damon,  Bridgewater. 

At  subsequent  meetings  of  the  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments, it  was  voted  to  have  a  public  dinner  in  the  new  rail- 
way passenger  station,  the  use  of  which  the  officers  of  the 
Old  Colony  and  Newport  Railway  Company  had  kindly  ten- 
dered to  the  Committee  ;  and  a  contract  was  concluded  with 
Mr.  L.  E.  Field,  of  Taunton,   to  furnish   the  dinner,  and 


10  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

also  the  supper  for  the  ball.  The  Standish  Guards,  of  Ply- 
mouth, were  invited  to  perform  escort  duty,  and  to  1)6  the 
guests  of  the  Society  at  the  dinner  on  the  day  of  the  Celebra- 
tion. Gilmore's  Band,  of  Boston,  and  the  Plymouth  Brass 
Band  were  engaged  for  the  occasion,  and  every  step  was 
taken  on  a  liberal  scale  to  insure  a  commemoration  worthy 
of  the  day  and  creditable  to  the  town. 

By   a  vote   of  the   Committee,   the   following  clergymen 
were  invited  to  conduct  the  services  in  the  church  :  — 

Rev.  R.  H.  Neale,  D.D.,  Boston.  I  Rev.  J.  P.  Thompson,  D.  D.,New 
Rev.F.  H.  Hedge,  D.D.,  Brook-  York. 

line.  Rev.  T.  E.  St.  John,  Worcester. 

Rev.  J.  A.  M.  Chapman,  Boston.     |  Rev.  F.  N.  I^napp,  Plymouth. 

Letters  of  invitation  to  be   present  at  the  Celebration  as 
guests  of  the  Society  were  sent  to  the  following  gentlemen  :  — 

His  Excellency  Ulysses  S.  Grant  .  .  President  of  the  United  States. 
Hon.  ScHUYLEK  Colfax      .     .     .     Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 

„     Hamilton  Fish Secretary  of  State. 

„     J.  C.  B.  Davis Assistant  Secretary  of  State. 

„     George  S.  Boutwell Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

„     William  A.  Richardson     .  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

„     Columbus  Delano Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

„     WiLLiAiM  W.  Belknap Secretary  of  War. 

„     G.  M.  Robeson Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

„     J.  A.  J.  Cresswell Postmaster- Genei-al. 

„     Amos  T.  Akerman Attorney-General. 

„     Nathan  Clifford      .    Associate  Justice  Supreme  Court  of  U.  S. 

Gen.  William  T.  Sherman Washington. 

Maj.-Gen.  O.  O.  Howard „ 

„        John  M.  Corse ,, 

Hon.  Edward  Thornton British  Minister. 

„     J.  W.  Patteijson United  States  Senate. 

„     Matt.  H.  Carpenter „  „ 

„     Hannibal  Hamlin „  „ 

„     James  W.  Nye „  „ 

„     Charles  Sumner „  „ 

„     Henry  Wilson „  „ 


PRELIMINARY    PROCEEDINGS.  1  1 

Hon.  James  A.  Gakfield  .  .  United  fitates  House  of  Represenfntivesi. 
„     William  D.  Kklly     .     .  „  „  „ 

„     James  Buffinton  ...  „  „  „ 

„     B.  F.  Butler    ....  „  „ 

„     Oakes  Ames „  „  „ 

„     Genery  Twiciiell      .     .  „  „  „ 

„     Samuel  Hooper     ...  „  „  „ 

„     Nathaniel  P.  Banks  .     .  „  „  „ 

„     George  M.  Brooks    .     .  „  „  „ 

„     George  F.  Hoar    ...  „  „  „ 

„     Henry  L.  Dawes  ...  „  „  „ 

„     William  B.  Washburne  „  „  „ 

„     Caleb  Gushing Washington. 

„     George  Bancroft Berlin. 

„     J.  L.  Motley London. 

„     George  P,  Marsh Turin. 

Commodore  James  Alden Washington. 

Hon.  Joshua  L.  Chamberlin Governor  of  Maine. 

„     Onslow  Stearns Governor  of  New  Hampshire. 

,,     John  W.  Steward Governor  of  Vermont. 

„     Seth  Padelford Governor  of  Rhode  Island. 

„     James  E.  English Governor  of  Connecticut. 

„     Charles  S.  Bradley  .     .      Late  Chief  Justice  of  Rhode  Island. 
„     Morton  McMichael Philadelphia. 

Jay  Cooke,  Esq Philadelphia. 

Hon.  Horace  Greeley  .  .  .  Ex-Member  of  Congress,  Xeiv  York. 
„  Joseph  H.  Choate  .  .  .  President  N.  E.  Society  of  New  York. 
„     William  M.  Evarts     .      New  York,  Ex- Attorney-General  U.  S. 

Richard  Wari:en,  Es(j.     .      New  York,  Ex-President  Pilgrim  Society. 

George  W.  Curtis,  Esq New  York. 

William  C.  Bryant,  Esq „ 

Rev.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  D.D „ 

President  T.  D.  Wolsey Yale  College. 

President  Charles  W.  Eliot Harvard  College. 

Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  D.D Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Rev.  Richard  S.  Storrs,  Jr.,  D.D Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Samuel  Copp  Brewster,  Esq Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

C.  B.  Doty,  Esq Steuhenville,   Ohio. 

Hon,  T.  Sterry  Hunt  .  .  .  President  N.  E.  Society  in  Montreal. 
„     George  Partridge  .     .     .  President  N.  E.  Society  in  St.  Louis. 

Hon.  George  T.  Davis     ....  Portland,  Ex- Member  of  Congress. 


12  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


Aids  to  ihe  Governor  of  Massa- 


IIIs  Excellency  Wiixiam  Claklin    .     .     .     Qovernor  of  MassachiisetU. 
Colonel  A.  B.  Underwood    .     . 
„       Jamks  L.  Bates    .     .     . 

„       Edwaki)  N.  Hallowell     .    i  chiisetts. 

„       Charles  F.  Walcott   .     .  J 
His  Honor  Joseph  Tucker     .      Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts. 
Hon.  William  L.  Reed Of  the  Executive  Council. 

„     Charles  Adams,  Jr.     .     . 

„     M.  S.  Underwood  .     .     . 

„     R.  G.  Usher 

„     William  Winn    .... 

„     H.  G.  Crowell  ..... 
■    „     Sylvajjder  Johnson    .     . 

„     Peter  Harvey     .... 

„     Oliver  Warner Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth. 

„     Jacob  H.  Loud Treasurer  and  Beceiver-General. 

„     Charles  Endicott Auditor. 

„  Hon.  Stephen  N.  Gifford  ....  Clerk  of  Mass.  Senate. 
Maj.-Gen.  James  A.  Cunningham  .  .  .  Adjutant- General  of  Mass. 
Hon.  Reuben  A.  Chapman    .       Chief  Justice  Supreme  Court  of  Mass. 


L.  F.  Brigham  .  . 
Charles  Allen  .  . 
Horace  H.  Cooledge 
Harvey  Jewell  .  . 
Charles  F.  Adams  . 
Charles  H.  Warren 
John  H.  Clifford  . 


Chief  Justice  Superior  Court  of  Mass. 
Attorney- General  of  Massachusetts. 
.  President  of  Massachusetts  Senate. 
Speaker  Mass.  House  of  Representatives. 
.  Boston,  Late  Minister  to  England. 
.    Ex-President  of  the  Pilgrim  Society. 
.   Neio  Bedford,  Ex- Governor  of  Mass. 
„     Alexander  H.  Bullock   .     .     Worcester,  Ex- Governor  of  Mass. 

Prof.  Henry  W.  Longfellow Harvard  College. 

„     James  Russell  Lowell „  „ 

William  Everett,  Esq „  „ 

Hon.  George  S.  Hillard United  States  Attorney. 

„     Thomas  Russell Collector  of  Boston. 

„     John  G.  Whittier Ameshury. 

„  E.  RocKWOOD  HoAK  .  Concord,  Late  Attorney-General  U.  S. 
„  Charles  W.  Upham  .  .  .  Salem,  Ex-Member  of  Congress. 
„     John  G.  Palfrey      .     .     .  Cambridge,  Ex-Member  of  Congress. 

„     George  B.  Loring Salem. 

„     Walter  S.  Harriman    .     .     .   Ex-Governor  of  New  Hampshire. 

„     Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff Mayor  of  Boston. 

„     George  W.  Warren      .     .     Gharlestoivn,  President  Bunker  Hill 

Monument  Association. 


PRELIMINARY    PROCEEDINGS. 


13 


Hon.  Geokge  Marston Keio  Bedford. 

„     William  II.  Wood Middleboro". 

„     William  S.  Clark     .  Amherst,  Pres.  Mass.  Agriadtural  College. 

„     Artemas  Hale  ....     Bridgewater,  Ex-Meviber  of  Congress. 

„     Benjamin  Hobart       .       Ahington,  oldest  living  Graduate  Brown 

University. 

William  L.  Garrison,  Esq Boston. 

William  H.  Bullock,  Esq „ 

Hammatt  Billings,  Esq.     .     Boston,  Architect  of  the  National  Monu- 
ment to  the  Pilgrims. 

Oliver  W.  Holmes,  M.D Boston. 

Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale „ 

Capt.  R.  A.  Fengar United  States  Revalue  Service. 

S.  B.  NoYES,  Esq Canton. 

Rev.  Edward  N.  Kirk Boston. 

„    J.  M.  Manning „ 

„    Edwards  A.  Park Andover. 

„    Edmund  H.  Sears Weston. 

„    Joseph  Richardson Hingham. 

The    following    Associations    were    also    invited    to    send 

delegates  to  attend  the  Celebi^ation  and  be  the  oruests  of  the 

Pilgrim  Society  :  — 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society Boston. 

American  Antiquarian  Society Worcester. 

New  England  Historic-Genealogical  Society    .     .     .     Boston. 

Historical  Society  of  Connecticut New  Haven. 

New  York  Historical  Society New  York. 

Cape  Cod  Association 

New  England  Society Cincinnati. 

,j  New  York. 

,j  Chicago. 

jj  Montreal. 

,j  Nexv  Orleans. 

j^  St.  Louis. 

J,  San  Francisco. 

j^  Aurora,  Nevada. 

The  day  of  the  Celebration  was  such  as  is  rarely  seen  in 
winter.  The  o;round  was  free  from  both  snow  and  frost,  the 
sky  cloudless,  and  the  air  as  iniki  as  that  of  early  November. 


14 


PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


During  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  the  streets  of 
Plymouth  were  enlivened  by  numerous  arrivals  from  the 
neighboring  towns ;  and  at  ten  o'clock  a  special  express  train 
of  eleven  cars  arrived  from  Boston,  bringing  most  of  the 
invited  guests  and  a  large  number  of  visitors.  At  eleven 
o'clock  the  regular  train  arrived  with  larger  numbers,  and  all 
were  warmly  welcomed  to  the  hospitalities  of  the  town.  To 
avoid  the  difficulty  of  discovering  the  invited  guests  at  the  sta- 
tion on  the  arrival  of  the  trains,  and  extricating  them  from  the 
crowd,  the  Committee  of  Reception  had  delegated  two  of 
their  number  to  go  to  Boston,  and  return  in  the  cars  with  the 
guests,  and  present  them  to  their  Chairman  on  their  arrival. 
They  were  at  once  taken  in  carriages  to  the  house  of  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  who  held  a 
public  reception,  and  from  there  escorted  to  the  Court  House, 
from  whence  they  were  to  take  carriages  for  the  procession. 
On  the  arrival  of  the  regular  train  at  eleven  o'clock,  the 
members  of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  and  citizens  intending  to 
join  the  procession  to  the  church  where  the  services  were  to 
be  held,  met  at  Pilgrim  Hall.  At  a  quarter  past  eleven,  the 
Chief  Marshal  Captain  Albert  Mason,  with  his  aids 
Captains  Charles  C.  Doten  and  James  D.  Thurber,  and 
his  assistants  — 


Capt.  JosiAH  C.  Fuller, 

„      Charles  B.  Stoddard, 
George  F.  Andrews, 
James  M.  Atwood, 
William  Hedge, 
Charles  H.  Rowland, 


Benjamin  A.  Hathaway, 
Joseph  L.  Weston, 
Chandler  Holmes, 
Thomas  D.  Shumway, 
George  H.  Jackson,  and 
John  H.  Harlow, 


with  the  exception  of  those  detailed  for  duty  at  the 
church,  formed  the  procession  ;  which  soon  after  moved  in 
the  following  order  through  Court,  North,  Water,  and 
Leyden  Streets,  to  the  Church  of  the  First  Parish  :  — 


PRELIMINARY    PROCEEDINGS. 


15 


EscoH. 

The  Standish  Guards,  Captain  Josiah  R.  Drew, 

Accompanied  by  the  Plymouth  Brass  Band. 

Aid.     Chief  Marshal.     Aid. 

The  Hon.  Edward  S^.  Tobey,  President  of  the  Society. 

The   Hon.    William    T.    Davis,    Vice-President   ol'  the  Society. 

The  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  the  Orator  of  the  Day, 

And  the  invited  guests,  as  follows  :  — 


Hon.  Henry  Wilson. 

Charles  F.  Adams. 
Onslow  Stearns. 
John  H.  Clifford. 
George  S.  Hillard. 
Charles  S.  Bradley. 
Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff. 
Thomas  Russell. 
George  T.  Davis. 
George  W.  Warren. 
Artemas  Hale. 
Benjamin  Hobart. 
Charles  Endicott. 
Walter  S.  Harriman. 
Jacob  H.  Loud. 
Stephen  N.  Giiford. 
Emory  Washburn,  Delegate  of 
Mass  Hist.  Soc 


Hon.  Stephen  Salisbury,  Delegate  of 
Amer.  Antiquarian  Soc. 
„     Marshul  P.   Wilder,  Delegate  of 

New  Eng.  Hist.  Gen.  Soc. 
„     T.  Sterr}'  Hunt. 
Rev.  Frederick  H.  Hedge,  D.D. 
„      Rollin  H.  Neale,  D.D. 
,,      Joseph  P.  Thompson,  D.D. 
„      J.  A.  M.  Chapman. 
„      T.  E.  St.  John. 
„      Frederick  N.  Knapp. 
Gen.  0.  0.  Howard. 
Mr.  William  Everett. 
„    Samuel  B.  Noyes. 
„    Hammatt  Billings. 
Capt.  R.  A.  Fengar. 
Col.  A.  B.  Underwood. 
„    Charles  F.  Walcott. 


Committee  of  Arrangements  and  Committee  of  Reception. 

Gilmore's  Band,  of  Boston. 

Officers  and  Trustees  of  the  Pilgrim  Society. 

Members  of  the  Pilgrim  Society. 

Other    Organizations,    and    Citizens. 

As  the  procession  passed  the  Rock,  a  national  salute 
was  fired  on  board  the  United  States  Revenue  Steamer 
"  Mahoning,"  anchored  in  the  harbor ;  a  courtesy  for  which 
the  Committee  were  indebted  to  the  Commander  of  the 
Cutter,  Captain  R.  A.  Fengar,  who  was  one  of  the  guests 
of  the  Society. 

The  church  had  been  opened  for  the  admission  of  ladies 
to  reserved  seats  at  a  quarter  past  eleven  o'clock  ;  and  on  the 
arrival  of  the  procession  it  was  at  once  filled  to  its  utmost 


16  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

capacity.  Gilmore's  Band  was  stationed  in  the  gallery, 
together  with  a  double  quartette  choir,  composed  of  the  fol- 
lowing singers  :  soprano,  Mrs.  Winslow  B.  Standish  and 
Miss  Olive  Collingwood ;  contralto,  Mrs.  E.  B.  Atwood 
and  Miss  Lena  Rich ;  tenor,  Messrs.  Joseph  L.  Brown 
and  John  H.  Harlow ;  basso,  Messrs.  Charles  H.  Rich- 
ardson and  James  M.  Atwood.  Seats  and  tables  for 
members  of  the  Press  were  arranged  in  the  cross-aisle  in 
front  of  the  pulpit ;  and  the  following  journals  were  repre- 
sented :  — 

Old  Colony  Memorial  and  Plymouth  Rock    .     .     .     Plymouth. 

Old  Colony  Sentinel ,, 

Abington  Standard Ahington. 

HIngham  Journal Hingham. 

North  Bridgewater  Gazette North  Bridgewater. 

Middleboro'  Gazette Middleboro\ 

New  Bedford  Standard Neio  Bedford. 

Weymouth  Gazette Weymouth. 

Yarmouth  Register Yarmouth  Port. 

Daily  Advertiser Boston. 

Boston  Journal 

Evening  Traveller 

Boston  Herald 

Boston  Post 

Evening  Transcript 

Suffolk  County  Journal 

Commercial  Bulletin 

Saturday  Evening  Gazette 

Free  Press Northampton. 

Hartford  Courant Hartford. 

Advance Chicago.. 

Christian  Union New  York. 

Evening  Post ,, 

Independent ,, 

Mexico  Independent Mexico,  N.  Y. 

At  a  quarter  past  twelve  the  services  commenced. 


^rrlnres  in  t()e   Cburrl), 


I. 

VOLUNTARY. 

Prayer  from  "  Moses  in  Egypt,"  by  Gilniore's  Band. 

II. 

ODE. 

Composed  by  Hon.  John  Davis,  for  the  Celebration  in  1792 ;  read 
by  Rev.  Rollin  II.  Neale,  D.D.,  of  Boston;  and  sung  by  the 
Choir  to  the  tune  of  "  America,"  with  Orchestral  Accompaniment. 

Sons  of  renowned  sires,'' 
Join  in  harmonious  choirs, 

Swell  your  loud  songs  ; 
Daughters  of  peerless  dames. 
Come  with  your  mild  acclaims, 
Let  their  revered  names 

Dwell  on  your  tongues. 

From  frowning  Albion's  seat 
See  the  famed  band  retreat. 

On  ocean  tost ; 
Blue  tumbling  billows  roar. 
By  keel  scarce  ploughed  before. 
And  bear  them  to  this  shore 

Fettered  with  frost. 

By  yon  wave-beaten  rock 
See  the  illustrious  flock 
Collected  stand ; 


18  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


To  seek  some  sheltering  grove 
Their  faithful  partners  move, 
Dear  pledges  of  their  love 
III  either  hand. 


Not  winter's  sullen  face, 
Not  the  fierce  tawny  race 

In  arms  arrayed, 
Not  hunger,  shook  their  faith  ; 
Not  sickness'  baleful  breath 
Nor  Carver's  early  death 

Their  souls  dismayed. 

Watered  by  heavenly  dew, 
The  germ  of  Empire  grew, 

Freedom  its  root ; 
From  the  cold  northern  pine, 
Far  tow'rd  the  burning  line, 
Spreads  the  luxuriant  vine, 

Bending  with  fruit. 

Columbia,  child  of  Heaven ! 
The  best  of  blessings  given 

Be  thine  to  greet ; 
Hailing  this  votive  day. 
Looking  with  fond  survey 
Upon  the  weary  way 

Of  Pilgrim  feet. 

Here  trace  the  moss-grown  stones 
Where  rest  their  mould'ring  bones. 

Again  to  rise ; 
And  let  thy  sons  be  led 
To  emulate  the  dead. 
While  o'er  their  tombs  they  tread 

With  moisten'd  eyes. 


SERVICES    IN    THE    CHURCH.  ID 

III. 

HEADING 

Of  the    following   Selections    from  the   Scriptures,  by    Rev.   Fi;ki>ki;ic 
H.  Hedge,  D.D.,  of  Brookline,  Mass. 

Psalm  CXXIV. 
TF  it  had  not  been  the   Lord  who  was  on  our  side,  now 
may  Israel  say  ; 

2  If  it  had  not  been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side,  when 
men  rose  up  against  us  : 

3  Then  they  had  swallowed  us  up  quick,  when  their  wrath 
was  kindled  against  us  : 

4  Then  tho  waters  had  overwhelmed  us,  the  stream  luul 
gone  over  our  soul : 

5  Then  the  proud  waters  had  gone  over  our  soul. 

6  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  who  hath  not  given  us  as  a  [)rey 
to  their  teeth. 

7  Our  soul  is  escaped  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the 
fowlers  :  the  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  escaped. 

8  Our  help  is  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  wdio  made  heaven 
and  earth. 

Gknesis  XII. 

1  Now  the  Lord  had  said  unto  Abram,  Get  thee  out  of 
thy  country,  and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's 
house,  unto  a  land  that  I  will  shew  thee  : 

2  And  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  nation,  and  I  will 
bless  thee,  and  make  thy  name  great ;  and  thou  shalt  be  a 
blessing : 

3  And  I  will  bless  them  that  bless  thee,  and  curse  him 

that  curseth  thee  :  and  in  thee  shall  all  families  of  the  earth 

be  blessed. 

Hebrews  XL 

1  Now  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evi- 
dence of  thino's  not  seen. 


20  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

2  For  by  it  the  ciders  obtained  a  good  report. 

8  By  faith  Abraham,  wlien  he  was  called  to  go  out  into 
a  place  which  he  should  after  receive  for  an  inheritance, 
obeyed  ;  and  he  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  he  went. 

9  By  faith  he  sojourned  in  the  land  of  promise,  as  in  a 
strange  country,  dwelling  in  tabernacles  with  Isaac  and 
Jacob,  the  heirs  with  him  of  the  same  promise  : 

10  For  he  looked  for  a  city  which  hatii  foundations, 
whose  builder  and  maker  is  God. 

12  Therefore  sprang  there  even  of  one,  and  him  as  good 
as  dead,  so  many  as  the  stars  of  the  sky  in  multitude,  and  as 
the  sand  which  is  by  the  sea  shore  innumerable. 

13  These  all  died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the  prom- 
ises, but  having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded  of 
them,  and  embraced  them,  and  confessed  that  they  were 
strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth. 

14  For  they  that  say  such  things  declare  plainly  that  they 
seek  a  country. 

15  And  truly,  if  they  had  been  mindful  of  that  country, 
from  whence  they  came  out,  they  might  have  had  opportunity 
to  have  returned. 

16  But  now  they  desire  a  better  country,  that  is,  an 
heavenly  :  wherefore  God  is  not  ashamed  to  be  called  their 
God  :   for  he  hath  prepared  for  them  a  city. 

39  And  these  all,  having  obtained  a  good  report  through 
faith,  received  not  the  promise  : 

40  God  having  provided  some  better  thing  for  us,  that 
they  without  us  should  not  be  made  perfect. 

Psalm   CVII. 

1  O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  he  is  good  :  for  his 
mercy  endureth  for  ever. 

2  Let  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord  say  so,  whom  he  hath 
redeemed  from  the  hand  of  the  enemy  ; 


SERVICES    IN    THE    CHURCH.  21 

3  And  gathered  them  out  of  the  lands,  from  the  east,  and 
from  the  west,  from  the  north,  and  from  the  south. 

4  They  wandered   in   tlie  wilderness    in  a  solitary   way ; 
they  found  no  city  to  dwell  in. 

5  Hungry  and  thirsty,  their  soul  fainted  in  them. 

6  Then  they  cried  unto  the  Lord  in  their  trouble,  and  he 
delivered  them  out  of  their  distresses. 

7  And  he  led  them  forth  by  the  right  way,  that  they  might 
go  to  a  city  of  habitation. 

8  Oh  that  men  would  praise  the  Loi'd  for  his  goodness, 
and  for  his  wonderful  works  to  the  children  of  men  ! 

9  For  he  satisfieth  the  longing  soul,  and  fillcth  the  hungry 
soul  with  goodness. 

32  Let   them  exalt  him  also   in  the  congregation  of  the 
people,  and  praise  him  in  the  assembly  of  the  elders. 

33  He   turneth  rivers   into  a  wilderness,   and  the  water- 
springs  into  dry  ground  ; 

34  A  fruitful  land  into   barrenness,  for  the  wickedness  of 
them  that  dwell  therein. 

35  He  turneth  the  wilderness  into  a  standing  water,  and 
dry  ground  into  water-springs. 

36  And  there  he  maketh  the  hungry  to  dwell,  that  they 
may  prepare  a   city  for  habitation  ; 

37  And  sow  the  fields,   and  plant  vineyards,  which  may 
yield  fruits  of  increase. 

40  He  poureth  contempt  upon  princes,  and  causcth  them 
to  wander  in  the  wilderness,  where  there  is  no  way. 

41  Yet   setteth  he  the  poor  on   high  from  atHiction,  and 
maketh  him  families  like  a  flock. 

42  The  righteous  shall  see  it,  and  rejoice  :   and  all  iniq- 
uity shall   stop  her  mouth. 

43  Whoso  is  wise,    and  will  observe  these  things,   even 
they  shall  understand  the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord. 


22  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Matthlw    VII. 

16  Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits  :  do  men  gather 
grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles? 

17  Even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth  good  fruit ;  but 
a  corrupt  tree  bringeth  forth  evil  fruit. 

18  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can 
a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit. 

19  Every  tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is  hewn 
doAvn,  and  cast  into  the  fire. 

20  Wherefore,  by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. 

21  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doetli  the  will 
of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

22  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord,  have  we 
not  prophesied  in  thy  name?  and  in  thy  name  have  cast  out 
devils  ?  and  in  thy  name  done  many  wonderful  works  ? 

23  And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never  knew  you  : 
depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity. 

24  Therefore,  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine, 
and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which 
built  his  house  upon  a  rock  : 

25  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the 
winds  blew,  and  boat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell  not :  for  it 
was  founded  upon  a  rock. 

26  And  every  one  that  heareth  these  sayings  of  mine,  and 
doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which 
built  his  house  upon  the  sand  : 

27  And  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the 
winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell :  and  great 
was  the  fall  of  it. 


SERVICES    IN    THE    CHURCH.  23 

IV. 

H  Y  M  N . 

Composed  for  the  occasion  by  Hon.  William  T.  Davis  ;  read  by 
Rev.  J.  A.  M.  Chapman,  of  Boston ;  and  sung  by  the  Choir,  with 
Orchestral  Accompaniment,  to  a  tune  composed  for  the  occasion 
by  C.  A.  White,  of  Boston.^ 

To  Thee,  O  God !  whose  guiding  hand 

Our  Fathers  led  across  the  sea. 
And  brought  them  to  this  barren  shore, 

Where  they  might  freely  worship  Thee  ; 

To  Thee,  O  God  !  whose  arm  sustained 

Their  footsteps  in  this  desert  land, 
Where  sickness  lurked  and  death  assailed. 

And  foes  beset  on  every  hand  ; 

To  Thee,  O  God !  we  lift  our  eyes  ; 

To  Thee  our  grateful  voices  raise, 
And,  kneeling  at  Thy  gracious  throne. 

Devoutly  join  in  hymns  of  praise. 

Our  Fathers'  God  !  incline  Thine  ear. 

And  listen  to  our  heartfelt  prayer ; 
Surround  us  with  Thy  heavenly  grace. 

And  guard  us  with  Thy  constant  care. 

Our  Fathers'  God !  in  Thee  we'll  trust ; 

Sheltered  by  Thee  from  every  harm, 
We'll  follow  where  Thy  hand  shall  guide, 

And  lean  on  Thy  sustaining  arm. 


24  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


V. 
ORATION. 

By  Hon.  Roiiert  C.  Wintiirop,  of  Boston. 

^  I  ^HERE  can  be  no  true  New  England  heart 
which  does  not  throb  to-day  with  something 
of  unwonted  exultation.  There  can  be  no  true 
American  heart,  I  think,  which  has  not  found  itself 
swelling  with  a  more  fervent  gratitude  to  God,  and 
a  more  profound  veneration  for  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
as  this  morning's  sun  has  risen  above  the  hill-tops, 
in  an  almost  midsummer  glory,  and  ushered  in, 
once  more,  with  such  transcendent  splendor,  our 
consecrated  Jubilee. 

When  we  reflect  on  the  influence  which  has 
flowed,  and  is  still  flowing,  in  ever  fresh  and  cease- 
less streams,  from  yonder  Rock,  which  two  centuries 
and  a  half  ago  was  struck  for  the  first  time  by  the 
foot  of  civilized.  Christian  man;  when  we  reflect 
how  mightily  that  influence  has  prevailed,  and  how 
widely  it  has  pervaded  the  world,  —  inspiring  and 
aiding  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts,  and,  through 
Massachusetts,  of  all  New  England,  and,  through 
New  England,  of  so  large  a  part  of  our  whole  wide- 
spread country,  and  thus,  through  the  example  of 
our  country  and  its  institutions,  extending  the  prin- 
ciples of  civil  and  religious  freedom  to  the  remotest 
regions  of  the  earth,  leaving  no  corner  of  Christen- 


ORATION.  Jo 

dom,  or  even  of  Heathendom,  unxisited  or  unre- 
freshed,  —  we  should  be  dead,  indeed,  to  every 
emotion  of  gratitude  to  God  or  man,  were  we  not 
to  hail  this  Anniversary  as  one  of  the  grandest  in 
the  calendar  of  the  as^es. 

We  are  here,  my  friends,  to  celebrate  the  Fifth 
Jubilee  of  what  is  now  known  emphatically,  where- 
ever  the  history  of  New  England,  or  the  history  of 
America,  is  read,  as  "  The  Landing."  No  other 
landing,  temporary  or  permanent,  upon  our  own  or 
upon  any  other  shore,  can  ever  usurp  its  title,  or  ever 
supersede  or  weaken  its  hold  upon  the  world's 
remembrance  and  regard. 

There  have  been  other  landings,  I  need  hardly 
say,  which  have  left  a  proud  and  shining  mark  on 
the  historic  page:  Landings  of  discoverers;  land- 
ings of  conquerors;  landings  of  kings  or  princes, 
called  by  right  of  restoration  or  revolution  to  take 
possession  of  time-honored  thrones  ;  landings  of 
organized  Colonies,  from  large  and  well-appointed 
fleets,  on  conspicuous  coasts,  to  occupy  territories 
opened  and  prepared,  in  some  degree,  for  human 
habitation. 

Not  such  was  the  landing  which  we  commemo- 
rate to-day.  Not  such  the  event  which  has  ren- 
dered this  shortest  day  of  all  the  year  so  memorable 
for  ever  in  the  annals  of  human  freedom.  It  was 
the  landing  of  a  few  weary  and  wave-worn  men 
from  a  single  ship,  —  nay,  from  a  single  shallop,  — 


26  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

on  a  blciik  and  desolate  shore,  amid  the  storms  and 
tempests  of  a  well-nigh  arctic  winter,  with  none  to 
welcome,  none  even  to  witness  it.  I  might,  indeed, 
be  almost  pardoned  for  saying,  that  the  sun  itself 
stood  still  in  the  heavens  to  behold  it  !  But  there 
were,  certainly,  no  other  witnesses,  save  those  wit- 
nesses to  each  other's  constancy  and  courage  who 
were  themselves  the  actors  in  the  scene,  and  that 
all-seeing,  omnipresent  God,  who  guided  and 
guarded  all  their  steps. 

Turn  back  with  me  to  that  epoch  of  the  winter 
solstice,  just  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  let 
us  spend  at  least  a  portion  of  this  flying  hour  in 
attempting  to  recall  the  precise  incidents  which 
then  occurred  on  the  spot  on  which  we  are  assem- 
bled, with  some  of  their  immediate  antecedents  and 
consequences.  There  have  been,  and  will  be,  other 
occasions  for  boasting,  if  any  one  desires  to  boast, 
of  what  New  England  has  accomplished,  directly 
or  indirectly,  for  herself  or  for  mankind,  in  later 
times.  There  have  been,  and  will  be,  other  oppor- 
tunities for  a  general  glorification  of  New  England 
principles,  New  England  achievements,  New  Eng- 
land inventions  and  discoveries,  past  or  present, 
remote  or  recent.  We  recognize  them  all  to-day, 
—  all,  at  least,  that  are  worthy  of  being  recognized 
at  all,  —  as  the  legitimate  result  and  development  of 
this  day's  doings.  We  count  and  claim  the  progress 
of  our  country,  in  its  best  and  worthiest  sense,  as  the 


ORATION.  27 

"Pilgrims'  Progress;"  —  as  the  grand  and  glorious 
advance  upon  a  line  of  march  in  which  they  were 
the  pioneers,  and  for  which  they,  in  their  own 
expressive  phrase,  literally  as  well  as  metaphori- 
cally, were  the  instruments  "  to  break  the  ice  for 
others." 

To  them  the  honors  of  this  day  are  due.  To  their 
memories  this  Anniversar}^  is  sacred.  Once  in  fifty 
3^ears,  certainly,  we  may  well  refresh  our  remem- 
brance of  what  they  did  and  suffered,  and  still  more 
of  the  aims  and  ends  of  all  their  doings  and  suffer- 
ings. It  is  an  old  stor}^  it  is  true ;  but  there  are 
some  old  stories  which  are  almost  forgotten  into 
newness.  There  are  some  old  stories  which  are 
actually  new  to  every  rising  generation,  and  of 
whose  real  interest  and  nobleness  thousands  of 
young  hearts  receive  their  first  vivid  impression 
from  what  may  be  said  or  done  on  some  occasion 
like  the  present.  There  are  some  old  stories,  too, 
of  which  even  those  who  hold  them  in  fondest  and 
most  familiar  remembrance  are  never  weary;  and 
the  appetite  for  which  no  repetitions  can  ever  cloy, 
or  even  satisfy.  There  are  some  old  stories,  let 
me  add,  —  and  this  is  eminently  one  of  them, — 
around  which  a  haze,  or  it  may  be  a  halo,  of  legend 
and  romance  is  gradually  allowed  to  gather  and 
thicken  with  the  lapse  of  years,  and  which  require 
and  demand  to  be  set  forth  afresh,  from  time  to 
time,  in  their  true  simplicity  and  grandeur. 


28  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

But  there  is  no  longer  an  excuse  for  doubt  or 
uncertainty  as  to  any  substantial  statement  relating 
to  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  Tradition,  legend,  romance, 
can  find  "no  jutty,  frieze,  buttress,  nor  coigne  of  van- 
tage, for  their  pendent  bed  and  procreant  cradle," 
in  that  solid  structure  of  fact  and  truth  which  has 
recently  been  built  up,  —  let  me  rather  say,  w^hich 
has  recently  been  discovered  and  unveiled,  in  all 
the  simple  beauty  of  its  original  proportions,  —  by 
the  lovinCT  students  and  dilisj-ent  investigators  of 
Pilgrim  history. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  peculiar  advantage  of  all  young 
countries  like  our  own,  that,  originating  in  a  period 
of  written  and  printed  records,  they  may  trace  back 
the  current  of  their  career  to  its  primal  source  and 
spring,  without  leaving  room  for  any  intermixture 
of  myth  or  fable.  Yet  written  or  even  printed 
records  may  disappear,  or  be  overlooked  and  for- 
gotten for  a  time,  —  awaiting  such  a  search  and 
such  a  scrutiny  as  Grote  and  Niebuhr,  and  Merivale 
and  Mommsen,  have  recently  brought  to  the  history 
of  Greece  or  Rome  ;  or  as  Froude,  even  more  re- 
markably, has  just  given  to  the  history  of  England's 
Qiieen  Elizabeth. 

Even  such  a  search  and  such  a  scrutiny  have  of 
late  been  applied  to  the  history  of  the  little  band 
whose  landing  we  are  here  to  commemorate,  and 
most  richly  have  they  been  rewarded.  Since  the 
last   Jubilee    of  the    Pilgrims  was    celebrated,  fifty 


ORATION.  29 

years  ago,  —  when  that  grand  discourse  of  New 
England's  grandest  orator  and  statesman  summoned 
the  attention  of  the  world  so  emphaticall}'  to  their 
sublime  but  simple  story,  —  antiquarians  at  home  and 
abroad,  pious  and  painstaking  students,  American 
travellers  in  foreign  lands  not  forgetful  of  their  own, 
one  and  all,  have  seemed  inflamed  with  a  new  zeal 
to  subject  that  story  to  the  closest  examination;  to 
sift  out  from  it  everything  conjectural  and  legendary; 
and  to  investigate  the  Pilgrim  track,  footstep  by 
footstep,  wherever  it  could  be  found,  in  the  Old 
World  as  well  as  in  the  New.  Nothing  has  been 
too  minute  or  trivial  to  elude  their  search;  nothing 
too  seemingly  inscrutable  to  repel  or  discourage 
their  pursuit;  nothing  too  generally  credited  to  sat- 
isfy their  eagerness  for  positive  proof  and  authentic 
verification.  As  the  marvellous  growth  of  that  ma- 
jestic perennial,  of  which  the  Mayflower  supplied 
the  seed,  has  been  developed  and  displayed,  with 
all  its  myriad  leaves  for  the  healing  of  the  nations, 
and  all  its  magic  branches  for  sweetening  so  many 
bitter  fountains,  and  all  its  rich  and  varied  fruits  for 
ourselves  and  for  mankind,  they  have  been  more  and 
more  incited  to  trace  back  that  seed  to  its  native 
bed;  to  analyze  with  almost  chemical  exactness  its 
smallest  seminal  principles;  and  to  ascertain  pre- 
cisel}^  by  what  culture,  and  by  what  hands,  it  was 
made  so  to  take  root  upon  a  rock,  and  to  bud  and 
blossom  and  bear  so  abundantlv  in  a  wilderness. 


30  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

We  owe  these  laborious  investigators  a  deep  debt 
of  gratitude,  and  it  is  lit  that  we  should  not  for- 
get them,  this  day,  as  we  avail  ourselves  of  their 
researches.  I  need  but  name  the  late  admirable 
Judge  Davis,  whose  excellent  edition  of  "  Morton's 
Memorial  "  led  the  way  in  the  later  illustrations  of 
Pilgrim  history.  I  need  but  name  the  late  Reverend 
Dr.  Alexander  Young,  whose  "Chronicles  of  Plym- 
outh "  ought  to  be  fresh  in  the  memory  of  every  son 
and  daughter  of  the  old  Colony.  But  let  me  recall 
more  deliberately  a  venerable  antiquar}^  of  Old  Eng- 
land, whom  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  at  the 
breakfast-table  of  the  celebrated  historian  Hallam, 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  centur}-  ago,  —  the  late  Rev- 
erend Joseph  Hunter  ;  who,  having  diversified  his 
routine  of  service,  in  her  Majesty's  Public  Record 
Office,  by  tracts  illustrative  of  the  great  triumphs  of 
his  own  country  in  arms  and  in  literature,  —  tri- 
umphs by  the  sword  of  Henry  V.  at  Agincourt,  and 
triumphs  by  the  pens  of  Shakspeare  and  Milton  in 
the  fields  of  epic  or  dramatic  poetry,  —  turned  to  the 
Pilgrims  of  Plymouth,  and  to  the  Puritans  of  Massa- 
chusetts, for  the  latest  and  best  themes  of  his  un- 
wearied investigations.  To  him  we  primarily  owe 
it  that  we  can  follow  back  that  little  band,  to  which 
the  name  of  Brownists  had  been  contemptuously 
given,  to  the  very  hive  from  which  they  first 
swarmed,  —  that  little  circle  in  Yorkshire  and  Not- 
tinghamshire, and  not  far  from  Lincolnshire,  around 


ORATION.  31 

which  he  so  fitly  inscribed  the  legend,  "  Maximac 
gentis  incunabula,"  —  the  cradle  of  the  greatest 
nation.  By  the  light  of  his  antiquarian  torch  we 
are  able  to  fix  the  precise  locality  and  surround- 
ings of  the  old  Manor  Place  of  Scrooby,  —  formerly 
a  palace  of  the  Archbishops  of  York,  and  which  had 
often  been  the  residence  of  at  least  one  of  them, 
"that  he  might  enjoy  the  diversion  of  hunting" 
in  the  neighboring  chase  of  Hatfield;  which  was 
occupied  as  a  refuge  for  many  weeks  by  the  great 
lord  Cardinal  Wolsey,  when,  having  "  ventured  in  a 
sea  of  glory,  but  far  beyond  his  depth,"  he  had  at 
last  been  left,  "  weary  and  old  with  service,  to  the 
mercy  of  a  rude  stream,"  which  was  for  ever  to  hide 
him;  and  which,  not  many  years  afterwards,  Henry 
the  Eighth  himself  had  selected  for  a  resting-place, 
during  one  of  his  Royal  progresses  to  the  north;  — 
but  which,  half  a  century  later,  had  become  the  home 
of  one,  whose  occupation  of  it,  even  for  an  hour, 
would  have  given  it  a  celebrity  and  a  sanctity  in  our 
remembrance  and  regard,  which  neither  Archbish- 
ops, nor  Cardinals,  nor  Kings,  could  have  imparted 
to  it  in  a  lifetime. 

There,  in  that  "  manor  of  the  Bishops,"  of  which, 
alas!  hardly  a  fragment  is  now  left,  lived  William 
Brewster, —  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  men  whom 
we  are  here  to  commemorate,  and  not  unworth}^  to 
be  named  first  of  all,  on  such  an  occasion  as  this. 
Educated  at  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  hav- 


32  PILGRIM    ANNIVKKSARY. 

ing  served  as  the  faitliful  Secretary  of  the  accom- 
plished Davison  (Queen  Elizabeth's  Ambassador  in 
Holland,  and  afterwards  one  of  her  Secretaries  of 
State),  —  until  Davison's  too  prompt  and  implicit 
obedience  to  the  orders  of  his  Royal  Mistress  in  the 
matter  of  poor  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  had  afforded 
a  pretext  for  discarding  him,  —  Brewster  had  retired 
with  disgust  from  the  pomps  and  vanities,  the  capri- 
ces and  cruelties,  of  the  Court,  and  had  given  him- 
self up  to  religious  meditation  and  study.  Deeply 
impressed  with  the  corruptions  and  superstitions, 
the  prelatical  assumptions  and  tyrannies,  of  the 
English  Church,  as  it  then  existed,  in  those  earlier 
transition  stages  of  the  Reformation,  he  had  united 
himself  with  one  of  the  little  bodies  of  Separatists 
from  that  communion,  and  soon  became  "  a  special 
help  and  stay  to  them."  At  his  house,  —  this  very 
"manor  of  the  Bishops,"  which  Mr.  Hunter  helped 
us  to  identify,  —  we  learn  that  the  members  of  the 
church  of  which  the  sainted  Robinson  was  the  pas- 
tor, the  church  of  our  Plymouth  Pilgrims,  "ordi- 
narily met  on  the  Lord's  Day;  and  with  great  love 
he  entertained  them  when  they  came,  making  pro- 
vision for  them  to  his  great  charge;  and  continued 
so  to  do  while  they  could  stay  in  England." 

Our  mother  country  has  many  spots  within  her 
dominions  which  are  dear  to  the  hearts  of  the  lovers 
of  religious  and  of  civil  liberty  in  both  hemispheres: 
The  plain  of  Runnymede,  the  Lollard's  Tower,  the 


ORATION.  88 

Tower  of  London,  the  Martyrs'  Monument  at  Ox- 
ford, the  glorious  Abbey  of  Westminster,  the  grand 
Cathedrals  in  almost  every  county;  but  I  know  of 
none  more  worthy  of  being  visited  with  pious  rever- 
ence, by  every  American  traveller  certainly,  than 
that  old  original  site  of  Brewster's  residence  in  Not- 
tinghamshire; nor  one  which  more  deserves  to  be 
marked,  not  indeed  by  any  ostentatious  or  sumptu- 
ous structure,  out  of  all  keeping  with  the  plain  and 
frugal  chdracter  of  those  who  have  made  it  mem- 
orable for  ever,  but  by  some  appropriate  monument, 
a  chapel  or  a  school-house,  erected  by  the  care  and 
at  the  cost  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  New  Eng- 
land. We  all  remember  that  John  Cotton's  chapel 
at  Old  Boston  was  restored,  not  many  years  ago,  by 
the  contributions  of  a  few  of  the  generous  sons  of 
New  Boston.  The  place  where  Robinson  and 
Brewster  gathered  that  first  Pilgrim  Church  is  cer- 
tainly not  less  worthy  of  commemoration. 

But  it  is  not  only  the  residence  of  Brewster  which 
the  researches  of  good  Mr.  Hunter,  the  very  Nim- 
rod  of  Antiquaries,  have  revealed  to  us.  There, 
within  that  charmed  circle  —  the  cradle  of  the  great- 
est nation  —  he  helped  us  to  discover  a  birthplace, 
which  owing  to  a  blundering  misprint  had  so  long 
baffled  the  most  eager  search;  the  birthplace  of  one 
who  might  almost  contest  with  Brewster  himself  the 
right  to  be  named  first  at  any  commemoration  of 
the    Pilgrim    Fathers,  —  their   Governor    for    thirty 


34  PILGRIM    ANNIVKRSARY. 

years,  their  Historian,  their  principal  writer  both  in 
prose  and  verse,  and  second  to  no  one  of  them,  from 
first  to  hist,  in  the  fideHty  and  devotion  with  which 
he  sustained  and  illustrated  their  principles.  There, 
within  that  same  charmed  circle,  of  which  the  little 
market  town  of  Bawtry  is  the  centre,  and  the  greater 
part,  if  not  the  whole,  of  which  is  now  the  property 
of  one  whose  recent  title,  as  a  peer,  has  not  obliter- 
ated our  remembrance  of  his  name  as  a  poet,  and 
who  may  be  recalled  with  the  more  pleasure  at  this 
hour  as  one  of  the  few  among  the  English  nobility 
who  sympathized  with  the  North  in  our  late  war  for 
the  Union, — there,  in  the  record  book  of  the  little 
church  of  Austerfield,  still  standing,  has  been  found 
the  distinct  entry,  "William,  son  of  William,  Brad- 
fourth,  baptized  the  XIX"!  day  of  March,  Anno  Dfii 

1589." 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  photographic  picture  of  that 
ancient  edifice,  and  one,  too,  of  the  registered  entry 
of  Bradford's  baptism,  given  me  two  or  three  years 
ago  by  Lord  Houghton,  —  Monckton  Milnes  that 
was,  —  now  Lord  of  the  Manor,  I  believe,  —  and 
which  I  would  gladly  deposit  in  your  Pilgrim  Mu- 
seum, if  they  are  not  there  already. 

The  font  from  which  Bradford  was  christened, 
and  the  altar-rails  at  which  his  parents  doubtless 
kneeled — for  he  must  have  been  baptized  according 
to  the  rites,  and  by  a  pastor  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land—  are  still  preserved.      But  neither  pastor  nor 


ORATION.  35 

parents  could  have  dreamed,  as  the  infant  boy  winced, 
perhaps,  from  the  coldness  of  that  sprinkled  water, 
and  shrunk,  it  may  be,  from  the  signing  with  the  sign 
of  the  cross  upon  his  tiny  forehead,  how  sturdy  and 
uncompromising  a  hater  he  was  to  become,  in  his 
mature  life,  of  all  mere  forms  and  shows  and  cere- 
monies of  religion;  and,  at  the  same  time,  how 
earnest  and  ardent  and  devoted  a  lover  and  upholder 
of  the  ofreat  truths  and  doctrines  of  which  these  were 
but  the  outward  and  visible  signs. 

Bradford  and  Brewster,  if  I  mistake  not,  are  the 
only  two  of  our  Pilgrim  leaders,  who  can  be  dis- 
tinctly identified  with  that  little  church  at  Scrooby, 
of  which  the  venerable  Richard  Clifton  and  the 
zealous  John  Robinson  were  the  associated  pastor 
and  teacher,  and  out  of  which  came  this  first  per- 
manent settlement  of  New  England.  Bradford, 
indeed,  was  but  a  boy  in  age,  at  that  early  period,  — 
hardly  more  than  sixteen  years  old,  an  orphan  boy, 
—  and  must  have  been  like  a  son  to  Brewster,  who 
was  thirty  years  his  senior;  but  he  was  a  boy  who 
seems  to  have  known  "  little  more  of  the  state  of 
childhood  but  its  innocency  and  pleasantness,"  and 
who  was  capable,  even  then,  of  rendering  no  feeble 
aid  and  comfort  to  his  maturer  leader  and  friend. 
Together  they  braved  persecution.  Together  they 
bore  the  taunts  and  scoffs  of  neighbors  and  relatives. 
Together  they  embraced  exile.  Together  they  were 
cast    into    prison    at    old    Boston    in    Lincolnshire. 


86  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Together,  after  a  brief  separation,  —  for  Bradford 
was  liberated  first  on  account  of  his  youth, — they 
found  refuge  in  Holland.  Together  they  embarked 
in  the  Mayflower.  Together  they  were  associated 
for  three  and  twenty  years, —  for  Brewster  lived  in 
a  vigorous  old  age  till  1643,  —  in  establishing  and 
ruling  the  Pilgrim  plantation  here  at  New  Plym- 
outh. 

Brewster  and  Bradford,  the  ^neas  and  Ascanius 
of  our  grand  Pilgrim  Epic,  —  I  might  better  have 
said,  the  Paul  and  Timoth}^,  or  be  it  Titus,  of  our 
New  England,  Plymouth,  Separatist  Church,  —  both 
of  them  laymen,  but  both  of  them,  by  life  and 
word,  by  precept  and  example,  showing  forth  the 
great  doctrines  of  Christ,  their  Saviour,  with  a 
power  and  a  persuasiveness  which  might  well  have 
been  envied  by  any  pastor  or  preacher  or  lordly  prel- 
ate of  that  or  any  other  day:  —  For  ever  honored 
be  their  names  in  New  England  histor}^  and  in  New 
England  hearts!  Alas!  that  no  portrait  of  either  of 
them  is  left,  —  if,  indeed,  in  their  simplicity  and 
modesty,  they  would  ever  have  allowed  one  to  be 
taken,  —  so  that  their  image,  as  well  as  their  names 
and  their  example,  might  be  held  up  to  the  contem- 
plation of  our  country  and  of  mankind  for  endless 
generations! 

But  the  little  church  of  which  they  were  mem- 
bers was  able,  as  we  know,  to  maintain  its  precari- 
ous and  perilous  existence  at  Scrooby,  for  hardly 


ORATION.  37 

more  than  a  single  year,  certainly  for  not  more  than 
two  years.  It  could  find  indeed  no  safe  refuge  or 
resting-place  in  Old  England;  and  having  heard  that 
in  the  Low  Countries,  as  they  were  then  called, 
there  was  freedom,  or  at  least  toleration,  for  differ- 
ences of  religious  faiths  and  forms,  its  members 
resolved  to  fly  from  persecution  and  establish  them- 
selves in  Holland.  I  will  not  attempt  to  describe 
the  perils  they  encountered,  and  the  sufferings  they 
endured,  in  that  flight;  —  the  separations  of  children 
from  parents,  and  of  wives  from  husbands;  the 
arrests  and  examinations,  the  fines  and  imprison- 
ments, to  which  so  many  of  them  were  subjected; 
the  "hair-breadth  'scapes"  of  one  large  party  of 
them  during  a  tempestuous  voyage  of  fourteen  days, 
in  crossing  the  German  Ocean,  in  an  almost  sinking 
ship.  The  whole  story  is  familiar  to  you.  It  is 
enough  that  we  And  them  all  at  last  safel}^  in  Amster- 
dam, where  they  are  free  to  enjoy  their  pure  and 
simple  worship,  and  where  they  remain  quietly  for 
another  year. 

Not  a  trace  is  left  of  their  residence  in  that  then 
mighty  mart,  almost  a  second  Venice;  born  of  the 
sea,  "  built  in  the  very  lap  of  the  floods,  and  encir- 
cled in  their  watery  arms; "  and  claiming  the  whole 
ocean,  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Levant,  not  only  as  the 
field  of  its  enterprise,  but  almost  as  its  own  right- 
ful inheritance  and  domain.  Not  a  trace  of  them 
is    left   there.     We    only   know    that,   finding    they 


38  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

were  in  danger  of  being  involved  in  contentions 
about  women's  dresses  and  men's  starched  bands, 
and  other  such  vital  matters,  which  had  sprung  up 
in  another  little  church  of  English  Separatists  which 
had  fled  there  before  them,  and  thus  of  being  robbed 
of  that  harmony  and  peace  which  the}''  prized  above 
all  earthly  things,  and  which  they  had  abandoned 
home  and  kindred  and  country  to  enjoy,  —  they 
thought  it  best  to  remove  once  more,  and  establish 
themselves  at  the  neighboring  inland  city  of  Leyden. 
It  was  a  great  epoch  in  Dutch  history,  when 
the  Pilgrims  took  up  their  abode  in  Holland,  and 
began  to  habituate  themselves  to  its  '^  strange  and 
uncouth  "  customs  and  language.  It  was  the  precise 
period  at  which,  as  the  close  and  consummation  of 
"  the  most  tremendous  war  for  libert}'  ever  waged," 
our  own  Motley  has  terminated  his  admirable  ac- 
count of  "The  United  Netherlands," — to  begin  it 
again,  we  trust,  at  no  distant  day,  and  then  to  show 
us  precisely  what  was  going  on  in  that  interest- 
ing country  while  our  Fathers  were  witnesses  and 
partakers  of  its  fortunes.  Within  a  3^ear  after 
they  reached  Amsterdam,  and  the  very  year  they 
removed  to  Leyden,  the  grand  twelve  years'  truce 
between  Spain  and  her  revolted  Colonies  had  been 
negotiated  and  ratified.  Those  Colonies  had  now 
virtually  established  their  freedom  and  independ  - 
ence.  Olden  Barneveldt  and  Prince  Maurice  had 
reconciled  their  animosities  and  rivalries  for  a  time; 


ORATION.  39 

and  the  great  Republic — henceforth,  though  not 
for  ever,  to  be  known  and  recognized  as  the  United 
States  of  the  Netherlands  —  was  enjoying  internal 
as  well  as  external  peace  and  rest,  after  a  fearful 
struggle  of  forty  years'  duration. 

It  is  a  charming  coincidence,  certainly,  that  the 
comine  of  the  Pilgrims  was  thus  simultaneous  with 
the  commencement  of  that  blessed  truce,  which 
was  destined,  too,  by  its  own  limitation,  to  last  dur- 
ing the  precise  period  of  their  stay  there.  One 
might  almost  picture  the  bow  of  peace  and  promise, 
lifting  itself  in  all  its  many-colored  glories,  and  over- 
arching that  blood-stained  soil,  to  welcome  the  little 
band  of  fua'itives  for  conscience'  sake  to  their  teni- 
porary  repose,  and  to  assure  them  that  war  should 
crimson  its  fields  no  more  while  they  should  bless 
it  with  their  presence! 

At  Leyden,  they  find,  as  Bradford  says,  "a  fair 
and  beautiful  city,  and  of  a  sweet  situation,  but  made 
more  famous  by  the  Universit}"  wherewith  it  is 
adorned,  in  which  of  late  had  been  so  many  learned 
men."  That  was,  certainly,  a  noble  University, 
erected  as  a  monument  to  the  heroism  of  those  who 
had  fought  and  fallen  in  the  dreadful  siege  which 
the  city  had  endured  so  grandly  in  1574,  —  erected 
in  the  same  spirit  in  which  our  Memorial  Hall  has 
recently  been  founded  at  Cambridge  by  the  Alumni 
of  Harvard.  Famous  professors,  and  famous  schol- 
ars    also,    it    had    indeed     enjoyed.      The    learned 


40  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Arminius  had  died  just  as  the  Pilgrims  arrived 
there,  but  his  teachings  and  doctrines  were  left  to 
be  the  subject  of  endless  disputation.  The  marvel- 
lous Joseph  Scaliger,  too,  had  died  the  same  year; 
but  his  not  less  marvellous  pupil,  Hugo  Grotius, 
was  only  at  the  outset  of  his  great  career,  having 
published  his  Latin  Tragedy,  "  The  Suffering 
Christ,"  the  very  year  of  their  arrival  at  Amster- 
dam, and  his  "  Mare  Liberum "  the  year  of  their 
removal  to  Leyden. 

The  youthful  Bradford  may  not,  perhaps,  have 
been  much  in  the  wa}^  of  taking  note  or  notice  of 
what  was  going  on  at  this  great  seat  of  learning, 
as,  in  default  of  other  means  of  support,  he  had  put 
himself  as  an  apprentice  to  a  French  Protestant, 
and  was  acquiring  the  art  of  dyeing  silk.  But  Brews- 
ter had  found  employment  as  a  tutor  to  some  of  the 
youth  of  the  city  and  the  University,  and  was  teach- 
ing them  the  English  language  by  a  grammar  of  his 
own  construction;  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  had  set 
up  a  printing-press,  and  "  was  instrumental  in  pub- 
lishing several  books  against  the  hierarchy,  which 
could  not  obtain  a  license  in  England.""  To  him  the 
University  and  its  learned  professors,  and  all  their 
proceedings  and  lectures,  must  have  been  as  famil- 
iar as  they  were  interesting.  His  revered  friend 
and  pastor,  Robinson,  moreover,  —  as  we  learn  from 
the  researches  of  an  accomplished  and  lamented 
New  England  scholar  and   traveller   (the    late   Mr. 


ORATION.  41 

George  Sumner),  —  was  formally  admitted  to  the 
privileges  of  a  member  or  subject  of  the  University 
four  or  five  years  after  his  arrival  at  Leyden.  By 
the  investigations  of  Mr.  Sumner,  too,  and  of  a  late 
American  Minister  at  the  Hague,  the  Hon.  Henry 
C.  Murphy,  we  have  been  enabled  to  identify  the 
very  spot,  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of  St.  Peter,  where 
the  precious  remains  of  this  holy  man,  whose  mem- 
ory is  so  dear  to  New  England,  were  at  least  tem- 
porarily deposited;  while  the  record  of  that  burial 
has  also  most  happily  helped  us  to  fix  the  exact 
place  of  his  residence  as  long  as  he  lived  there.  In 
that  residence,  —  and  not  in  any  church  edifice,  for 
they  had  none,  —  there  is  the  best  reason  for  think- 
ing that  the  Pilgrims  worshipped ;  and  thanks  to  the 
pious  pains  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Martyn  Dexter,  of 
Boston,  whose  labors  in  the  cause  of  Pilgrim  his- 
tor}^  I  may  find  further  cause  for  acknowledging,  a 
plate  has  been  affixed  to  the  walls  of  the  building 
which  now  stands  on  that  site,  inscribed,  "  On  this 
spot  lived,  taught  and  died,  John  Robinson, 
1611-1625." 

I  cannot  forget  that  I  lingered  in  Leyden,  for  some 
hours,  two  or  three  years  ago,  for  the  single  pur- 
pose of  visiting  that  site,  and  the  place  of  the 
grave  of  him  who  made  it  so  memorable  for  ever; 
but  I  could  find  no  one  at  hand  to  point  either 
of  them  out  for  me;  and,  but  for  the  record  of  Mr. 
Sumner  and   the  inscription  of  Dr.  Dexter,  I  might 


42  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

have  missed  all  that  there  is  there  to  recall  the 
memory  of  the  Fathers  of  New  England.  For,  in- 
deed, this  is  all,  —  the  place  of  a  temporary  grave 
and  the  site  of  a  dwelling  long  ago  levelled  to  the 
ground,  —  this  is  absolutely  all  which  can  be  iden- 
tified of  the  Pilgrims'  home  at  Leyden  for  eleven 
years.  Yet  no  New  Englander,  I  think,  can  visit 
that  city  on  an  early  autumn  or  a  late  summer's  day, 
and  behold  the  ancient  buildings  on  which  their 
eyes  must  have  been  accustomed  to  look;  and  gaze 
on  the  countless  canals,  and  on  the  flowing  river,  on 
the  bosom  of  which  they  must  so  often  have  sailed, 
and  on  the  banks  of  which  they  must  so  often  have 
rested  ;  and  drink  in  that  soft,  hazy,  golden  sunshine, 
which  one  of  the  great  masters  of  that  region 
(Cuyp),  not  far  from  the  very  time  and  place  at 
w^hich  the}^  were  enjoying  it,  was  engaged  in  making 
the  chief  charm  of  not  a  few  of  his  most  exquisite 
landscapes,  —  without  being  conscious  of  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  scene;  nor  without  feeling  and  acknowl- 
edging that  there  is,  and  will  for  ever  be,  a  magnetic 
sympathy  between  Leyden  and  Plymouth  Rock, 
which  no  material  batteries  or  tangible  wires  are 
needed  to  kindle  and  keep  alive. 

Leyden  must  indeed  have  been,  as  we  know  it 
was,  most  dear  to  the  hearts  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
There  they  found  rest  and  safety.  There,  to  use 
their  own  language,  they  enjoyed  "  much  sweet  and 
delightful   society  and  spiritual   comfort  together  in 


ORATION.  4o 

the  ways  of  God,"  and  "lived  together  in  peace  and 
love  and  holiness."  But  there,  too,  they  were  joined 
by  not  a  few  of  those  who  were  to  be  most  service- 
able and  most  dear  to  them  in  their  future  experi- 
ences and  trials. 

There  they  were  joined  by  John  Carver,  of 
whom  we  know  enough  for  his  own  glory,  and  for 
his  perpetual  remembrance  among  men,  in  know- 
ing almost  nothing  except  that  he  was  counted 
worthy  to  be  chosen  the  first  Governor  of  the 
little  band,  and  that  he  died,  here  at  Pl3^mouth, 
after  a  brief  career,  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  that 
office. 

There  Robert  Cushman  joined  them,  who,  in 
spite  of  some  infirmities  of  temper  and  some  infelic- 
ities of  conduct,  and  though  at  one  time  he  seemed 
to  have  "put  his  hand  to  the  plough  and  to  have 
looked  back,"  and  was  missing  from  the  group 
whose  advent  we  celebrate  to-day,  came  over  not 
long  afterwards,  reinstated  in  the  confidence  of 
those  with  whom  he  had  been  so  prominently  asso- 
ciated at  Leyden;  delivered,  in  the  Common  House 
of  the  Plantation,  that  memorable  sermon  on  Self- 
Love,  the  first  printed  sermon  of  New  England,  if 
not  of  our  whole  continent;  and,  after  a  perhaps  pre- 
mature return  home,  continued  to  watch  carefully 
over  the  interests  of  the  Pilgrims  in  England,  writ- 
ing letters  remarkable  alike  for  the  beauty  of  their 
style  and  for  the  prudence  of  their  counsel;  and  was 


44  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

lamented   by  Bradford,  when  he  heard  of  his  death 
in  1624,  as  "a  wise  and  faithful  friend." 

There  they  were  joined  by  Miles  Standish,  the 
intrepid  soldier  and  famous  captain  of  New  Eng- 
land; who,  having  served  on  the  side  of  the  Dutch 
in  the  armies  of  England  in  the  war  against  Spain, 
and  having  now  been  released  by  the  great  truce 
from  further  campaigning  in  the  Old  World,  united 
himself  with  the  Pilgrims,  and,  though  not  a  mem- 
ber of  their  church,  followed  their  fortunes,  and 
fought  their  battles  gallantly  to .  the  end.  A  little 
man  himself,  —  hardly  more  than  five  feet  high, 
—  the  grand  army  with  which  he  performed  "his 
most  capital  exploit"  was  probably  the  smallest 
which  was  ever  mustered  for  a  serious  conflict  in 
the  annals  of  human  warfare,  —  only  eight  men 
besides  their  leader.  But,  "in  small  room  large 
heart  inclosed,"  he  had  acquired,  not  perhaps 
from  Csesar's  Commentaries,  his  favorite  study,  but 
certainly  from  some  other  source,  a  knowledge 
which  some  of  the  ruthless  warriors  of  the  present 
day  have  failed  to  exhibit,  —  the  knowledge  where 
to  stop,  as  well  as  when  to  strike;  and,  having 
secured  a  signal  victory,  he  brought  home  in  safety 
every  man  whom  he  carried  out.  Honor  to  Miles 
Standish,  "  the  stalwart  captain  of  Plymouth,"  of 
whose  restrained  wrath,  when  the  Puritan  influence 
had  come  in  to  temper  the  profanity  for  which  there 
was  a  proverbial  license  in  Flanders,  our  charming 


ORATION.  45 

Longfellow  would   seem  to  have  caught  the  very 
accent  and   cadence,   when   he  says  of  it,  — 

"  Sometimes  it  seemed  like  a  prayer,  and  sometimes  it  sounded  like 
swearing ;  " 

and  whose  threefold  accomplishments  he  so  tersely 
sums  up,  when  he  describes  him  as  doubting 

''Which  of  the  three  he  should  choose  for  his  consolation  and  comfort, 
Whether  the  wars  of  the  Hebrews,  the   famous  campaigns  of  the 

Romans, 
Or  the  artillery  practice,  designed  for  belligerent  Christians." 

A  higher  tribute  to  the  fidelity,  vigilance,  and 
courage  of  the  old  Plymouth  captain  could  hardly 
have  been  paid,  than  when  the  late  venerable  Judge 
Davis,  —  a  Plymouth  man,  and  full  of  the  original 
Plymouth  spirit,  —  not  many  3'ears  before  his  death, 
unwilling  to  be  wanting  to  the  volunteer  patrol 
service,  in  Boston,  on  some  occasion  of  real  or 
imaginary  peril,  made  solemn  application  to  our 
old  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  the  use 
of  one  of  his  reputed  —  albeit  somewhat  rusty  — 
swords,  and  walked  the  midnight  round  with  that 
for  his  trusty  and  all-sufficient  companion. 

But  there,  too,  at  Leyden,  they  were  joined,  —  by 
the  accidents  of  travel,  as  it  would  seem,  —  in  161 7, 
by  one  of  the  very  noblest  of  our  little  band,  who 
was  soon  associated  most  leadingly  and  lovingly 
with  all  their  spiritual  as  well  as  temporal  concerns; 
their  Governor  for  three  years,  when  Bradford  had 
"  by  importunity  got  oft' ;  "  the  narrator  and  chron- 


46  PIlXiKl.M    ANNIVERSARY. 

icier  of  not  a  few  ot"  the  most  interesting  passages 
of  their  history;  the  leader  of  not  a  few  of  their 
most  important  enterprises;  a  man  of  eminent  activ- 
ity, resolution,  and  bravery;  who  did  not  shrink  from 
offering  himself  as  a  hostage  to  the  savages,  while 
a  conference  was  held  and  a  treaty  made  with  one 
of  their  barbarous  chieftains;  who  did  not  shrink 
from  imprisonment,  and  the  danger  of  death,  in  con- 
fronting, as  an  agent  of  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts, 
the  tyrannical  Archbishop  Laud;  who  earned  a 
gentler  and  more  practical  title  to  remembrance  as 
the  importer  of  the  first  neat  cattle  ever  introduced 
into  New  England;  an  earnest  and  devoted  friend 
to  the  civilization  of  the  Indian  tribes  and  their  con- 
version to  Christianity;  the  chief  commissioner  of 
Oliver  Cromwell  in  his  warlike  designs  upon  an 
island,  which  our  own  hero  President  has  so  recently 
attempted  to  secure  by  peaceful  purchase: — Edward 
WiNSLOW, —  the  only  one  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of 
whom  we  have  an  authentic  portrait;  whose  old 
seat  of  Careswell,  at  Marshfield,  was  the  chosen 
home  of  Webster;  and  whose  remains,  had  they  not 
been  committed  to  the  deep,  when  he  died  so  sadly 
on  the  sea,  at  the  close  of  his  unsuccessful  expedi- 
tion to  St.  Domii>go,  would  have  been  counted 
among  the  most  precious  dust  which  New  England 
could  possess. 

Leyden  must  indeed  have  been  dear  to  the  Pil- 
grims, as  the  place  where  so  many  of  these  leading 


ORATION.  47 

spirits  first  entered  into  tlieir  association,  and  first 
pledged  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  the  sacred 
enterprise. 

But  Leyden,  and  the  whole   marvellous   land  of 
which  it  was  at  that  day  one  of  the  most  interesting 
and  enlightened  cities,  had  a  charm  for  our  Fore- 
fathers far  above  all  mere  personal  considerations. 
It  was   a   land   to    which   the  great   German    poet, 
dramatist,  and  historian,  Schiller,  in  his  "  Revolt  of 
the  Netherlands,"  gave  the  noblest  testimony,  in  say- 
ing that  "  every  injury  inflicted  by  a  tyrant  gave  a 
right  of  citizenship  in  Holland."     It  was  a  land  to 
which    that    quaint    old     Suftblk    County    essayist, 
Owen   Felltham,  paid  a  still  higher  tribute  when  he 
described  it  as  "  a  place  of  refuge  for  sectaries  of 
all  denominations."     "Let  but  some  of  our  Separa- 
tists be  asked,"  said  he,  with  evident  reference  to 
our  English  exiles  of  whom  he  was  a  contemporary, 
"  let  but  some  of  our  Separatists  be  asked,  and  they 
shall  swear  that  the  Elysian  Fields  are  there."     "  If 
you  are  unsettled,"  says   he  in  another  place,  "  if 
you  are  unsettled  in  your  religion,  you  may  tr}^  here 
all,  and  take   at  last  what  you   like   best.     If  you 
fancy  none,  you  have  a  pattern  to   follow  of  two 
that  would  be  a  church  by  themselves." 

Yes,  that  was  exactly  it, — "a  Church  by  them- 
selves;" and  there,  in  that  church  by  themselves, 
our  Pilgrim  Fathers  first  tasted  the  sweets  of  civil 
and   religious  freedom,  and    enjoyed  that  liberty  to 


48  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

worship  God,  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
own  consciences,  which  to  them  was  worth  every 
sacrifice  and  above  all  price.  There,  too,  just 
as  they  removed  fi-om  Amsterdam  to  Leyden,  the 
extraordinary  sound  was  heard,  —  fi-om  the  lips 
of  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  in  behalf  of  his  Roman 
Catholic  brethren,  —  of  an  appeal  for  liberty  of 
conscience  which  was  never  surpassed  by  the 
founders  of  Rhode  Island,  Maryland,  or  Pennsyl- 
vania. "  Those,"  said  President  Jeannin,  most  forci- 
bly and  eloquently,  on  taking  leave  of  the  States 
General,  "  those  cannot  be  said  to  share  any  enjoy- 
ment from  whom  has  been  taken  the  power  of  serv- 
ing God  according  to  the  religion  in  which  they 
were  brought  up.  On  the  contrary,  no  slavery  is 
more  intolerable  nor  more  exasperates  the  mind 
than  such  restraint.  You  know  this  well,  my  Lords 
States;  you  know,  too,  that  it  was  the  principal, 
the  most  puissant  cause  that  made  you  fly  to  arms 
and  scorn  all  dangers,  in  order  to  effect  your  deliv- 
erance from  this  servitude.  You  know  that  it  has 
excited  similar  movements  in  various  parts  of  Chris- 
tendom, and  even  in  the  kingdom  of  France,  with 
such  fortunate  success  everywhere  as  to  make  it 
appear  that  God  had  so  willed  it,  in  order  to  prove 
that  religion  ought  to  be  taught  and  inspired  by  the 
movements  which  come  from  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
not  by  the  force  of  man." 

We  know  not  precisely  how  far  the  ears  of  the 


ORATION.  49 

Pilgrims  may  have  been  regaled,  and  their  hearts 
encouraged  and  strengthened,  by  this  grand  appeal 
from  so  unaccustomed  a  source.  Brewster,  who, 
as  we  have  seen,  had  been  in  the  Low  Countries 
before,  as  Secretary  to  the.  English  Ambassador, 
may  hardly  have  been  ignorant  of  it.  But,  at  all 
events,  it  affords  most  significant  testimony  to  the 
spirit  of  religious  liberty  which  pervaded  the  land 
in  which  such  words  at  that  period  could  have  been 
uttered;  and,  coming  from  the  lips  of  a  Romanist,  it 
must  have  put  to  shame  any  Protestant  bigotr}^  or 
intolerance,  if  any  such  were  lurking  there,  which 
might  have  restrained  the  full  freedom  of  our  Eng- 
lish exiles.  Dr.  Belknap,  in  his  American  Biogra- 
phy, may,  perhaps,  have  anticipated  events  in  stating, 
as  he  does,  that  Robinson  himself,  about  this  time, 
after  a  friendly  conference  with  one  upon  whose  name 
he  had  recently  made  a  petulant  pun,  in  an  angry 
controversy,  —  changing  it  reproachfully  from  Ames 
to  Amiss,  —  relaxed  the  rigor  of  his  Separatism  ; 
published  a  book,  allowing  and  defending  the  lawful- 
ness of  communicating  with  the  Church  of  England; 
"allowed  pious  members  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  of  all  the  reformed  churches,  to  communicate 
with  his  church;  and  declared  that  he  separated 
from  no  church,  but  from  the  corruptions  of  all 
churches."  But  the  statement  was  substantiall}^ 
true  of  a  later  period,  if  not  of  this.  The  book,  he 
adds,  gained  him  the  title  of  a  Semi-Separatist,  and 


50  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

was  so  offensive  to  the  rigid  Brownists  of  Amster- 
dam that  they  w^ould  scarcely  hold  communion  with 
the  Church  of  Leyden. 

But,  alas!  more  serious  dissensions  than  these 
were  soon  to  agitate  again  that  whole  united  Repub- 
lic, and  to  involve  it  in  a  crime  of  which  all  the 
multitudinous  seas  which  surround  it  could  hardly 
wash  out  the  stain.  The  successor  to  the  chair  of 
Arminius  in  the  University  of  Leyden  (Vorstius) 
had  not  only  stirred  up  "  hearts  of  controversy  "  in 
his  own  land  by  teaching  and  preaching  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  his  master,  but  had  roused  the  special 
indignation  of  the  Royal  theological  polemic  and 
titular  Defender  of  the  Faith  across  the  channel,  — 
that  same  James  I.,  who  a  few  years  before  had  cut 
short  a  conference  with  the  Puritan  leaders,  at 
Hampton  Court,  by  declaring  that  "  he  would  make 
them  conform  or  he  would  harry  them  out  of  the 
land,"  and  who,  in  this  respect  certainly,  had  been 
as  good  as  his  word.  The  recent  assassination 
of  his  glorious  fellow-sovereign,  Henry  IV.  of 
France,  had  revived  and  quickened  his  antipathy  not 
to  Roman  Catholics  only,  but  to  all  religionists 
who  did  not  agree  with  himself;  and  he  had  the 
insolence  now  to  demand  that  the  obnoxious  Pro- 
fessor of  Leyden  should  be  dismissed  from  his  chair 
and  banished  from  the  States,  —  leaving  it,  also,  to 
their  "  Christian  wisdom  "  whether  he  should  not  be 
burned  at  the  stake  for  "  his  atheism  and  blasphe- 


ORATION.  5 1 

mies."  The  States  were  compelled  to  comply,  and 
did  most  humiliatingly  comply,  with  this  demand; 
but  the  banishment  of  Vorstius  only  the  more 
inflamed  the  theological  strife  which  raged  through- 
out their  dominions.  Prince  Maurice  and  Olden 
Barneveldt  were  again  at  each  other's  throats;  the 
former  as  the  leader  of  the  Calvinist  party,  and  the 
latter  as  the  leader  of  the  Arminians,  with  Grotius 
as  his  second.  And,  incredible  as  it  seems  to  us  at 
this  hour,  the  controversy  was  only  terminated  by 
one  of  the  most  infamous  judicial  murders  which 
pollute  the  annals  of  mankind;  taking  its  loath- 
some place  in  the  calendar  of  crime  by  the  side  of 
the  execution  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  the  3-ear  before, 
and  of  Algernon  Sydney  and  Lord  William  Russell 
half  a  century  later.  On  the  13th  of  May,  16 19, 
Olden  Barneveldt,  the  noble  patriot  and  benefactor, 
second  to  no  one  among  the  founders  of  the  Repub- 
lic and  the  authors  of  its  liberties,  was  condemned 
to  death  and  beheaded  at  the  Hague;  while  Grotius 
was  sentenced  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  —  from 
which,  however,  the  ingenuit}'  of  his  wife  happily 
released  him  at  the  end  of  two  years. 

I  would  gladly  have  found  some  allusion  to  these 
monstrous  outrages  in  some  of  the  journals  or  letters 
of  the  Pilgrims.  Occurring,  as  they  did,  during  the 
very  last  year  of  their  residence  there,  I  would 
gladly  believe  that  some  abhorrence  of  such  crimes 
may  have   mingled  with  their   motives   for   seeking 


52  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

another  place  of  refuge.  Although  their  religious 
S3anpathies  were  strongly  with  the  Calvinist  party, 
and  their  pastor,  Robinson,  had  disputed  publicly 
against  the  doctrines  of  Arminius,  —  putting  his 
antagonist  Episcopius,  the  Arminian  Professor,  to 
"  an  apparent  nonplus,"  as  Bradford  tells  us,  "  not 
once  only,  but  a  second  and  third  time,  before  a 
great  and  public  audience,  and  winning  a  famous 
victory  for  the  truth,"  and  "  much  honor  and  respect 
for  those  who  loved  the  truth,"  —  yet  he  and  Brews- 
ter and  Bradford  and  Winslow  must  have  shrunk 
with  horror  from  this  atrocious  murder.  There  is 
good  reason  for  believing  that  Brewster,  indeed,  left 
Leyden  with  his  family  not  many  weeks  afterwards; 
and  I  will  not  doubt  that  such  events  increased  the 
eagerness  of  them  all  once  more  to  change  the 
place  of  their  habitation,  and  hastened  their  negotia- 
tions with  the  merchant  adventurers  in  London. 

But  their  purpose  of  quitting  Holland  had  been 
conceived  nearly  two  years  before  this  terrible 
tragedy  was  enacted.  As  early  as  the  autumn  of 
1617,  Robert  Cushman  and  John  Carver  had  been 
sent  as  their  agents  to  attempt  an  arrangement  for 
their  removal  to  America  with  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany in  London;  and  in  16 18  the  Church  of  Ley- 
den —  with  a  view  to  removing  the  objections,  and 
conciliating  the  favor  of  the  King  and  others  —  had 
adopted  those  memorable  Seven  Articles,  first  pub- 
lished in  1856  by  our  accomplished  historian  Ban- 


ORATION.  53 

croft,  in  which  the  authority  of  his  Majest}^  and  of 
his  Bishops  is  acknowledged,  with  an  unquaHfied 
assent  "to  the  confession  of  faith  published  in  the 
name  of  the  Church  of  England  and  to  every  article 
thereof."  The  adoption  of  these  "  Seven  Articles," 
and  the  appeals  addressed  to  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and 
others  by  Brewster  and  Robinson,  at  length  elicited 
an  assurance  that  "  both  the  King  and  the  Bishops 
had  consented  to  wink  at  their  departure." 

"  Conniving  at  them  and  winking  at  their  depart- 
ure "  were  all  the  assurances  they  could  wring  from 
Royalty.  "•  To  allow  or  tolerate  them  by  his  public 
authority,  under  his  seal,  they  found  it  would  not 
be."  And  though  the  Virginia  Company  w^ere 
strongly  desirous  to  have  them  go  to  America  under 
their  auspices,  and  willing  to  grant  them  a  patent 
with  as  ample  privileges  as  they  could  grant  to  any 
one,  the  feuds  and  factions  in  the  council  of  the 
Company  occasioned  such  delays  that  no  patent  was 
sealed  until  the  9th  of  June,  1619;  and,  after  all  the 
labor  and  cost  of  procuring  it,  it  was  never  made 
use  of.  An  agreement,  however,  was  entered  into 
wnth  Thomas  Weston  and  other  merchant  adven- 
turers; the  Mayflower  was  hired  to  await  them  at 
Southampton;  the  Speedwell  was  bought  to  take 
them  over  to  England,  and  keep  them  company 
afterwards;  a  day  of  solemn  humiliation  was  spent, 
—  after  a  parting  sermon  from  Robinson,  who  was 
to   remain    behind  with   half  the  members  of  his 


54  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

church,  —  "  in  pouring  out  prayers  to  the  Lord  with 
great  fervency  mixed  with  abundance  of  tears,"  and 
so  they  proceeded  to  Delft  Haven;  and  after  another 
most  touching  parting  scene,  all  kneeling  in  prayer 
and  taking  leave  of  each  other,  "  with  mutual  em- 
braces and  many  tears,"  the  sail  was  hoisted,  and 
with  a  prosperous  wind  they  came  in  a  short  time 
to  Southampton.  There  they  found  "  the  bigger 
ship  come  from  London,  lying  ready,  with  all  the 
rest  of  their  company."  A  few  days  more  are 
occupied  in  dealing  with  their  agents  and  the  mer- 
chant adventurers;  a  noble  farewell  letter  from 
Robinson  is  received  and  read;  and  once  more  they 
set  sail.  A  leak  in  the  Speedwell  compels  them  to 
put  in  at  Dartmouth,  and  then  again,  after  they  had 
gone  above  a  hundred  leagues  beyond  Land's  End, 
to  put  back  to  Plymouth,  and  to  abandon  the  Speed- 
well altogether.  At  last,  "  these  troubles  being 
blown  over,  and  now  all  being  compact  together  in 
one  ship,  they  put  to  sea  again  with  a  prosperous 
wind;"  and  on  the  i6th  day  of  September,  1620, 
Old  England  is  parted  from  for  ever.  The  May- 
flower, and  its  one  hundred  and  two  passengers, 
have  entered  on  the  voyage,  which  is  to  end  not 
merely  in  founding  a  more  memorable  Plymouth 
than  that  which  they  left  behind,  but  in  laying  the 
corner-stone  of  a  mightier  and  freer  nation  than  the 
sun  in  its  circuit  had  ever  before  shone  upon. 

Enoland    at  the   moment  took   no    note   of  their 


ORATION.  00 

departing.  Her  philosophers  and  statesmen  and 
poets  had  not  quite  yet  begun  to  appreciate  the 
losses  which  reHgious  persecution  was  entailing 
upon  her.  Lord  Bacon,  indeed,  "  the  great  Secre- 
tary of  Nature  and  all  learning,"  as  Isaac  Walton 
called  him,  had  already  foreshadowed  the  glory 
which  was  to  be  gained  by  some  of  his  Suffolk  and 
Lincolnshire  neighbors,  when,  in  one  of  his  cele- 
brated essays,  he  assigned  the  first  place,  "in  the  true 
marshalling  of  the  degrees  of  sovereign  honor,"  to  the 
^^ conditores  imperiorum^  —  the  founders  of  States  and 
Commonwealths."  But  it  was  more  than  ten  years 
afterwards  before  the  saintly  Herbert  published  those 
noted  lines,  which  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  Cambridge 
had  so  much  hesitation  about  licensing  :  — 

"  Religion  stands  on  tiptoe  in  our  land, 
Readie  to  passe  to  the  American  strand." 

And  it  was  nearl}'  ten  years  later  still,  when  John 
Milton,  in  his  treatise  "  Of  Reformation  in  England," 
exclaimed,  "  What  numbers  of  faithful  and  free-born 
Englishmen,  and  good  Christians,  have  been  con- 
strained to  forsake  their  dearest  home,  their  friends 
and  kindred,  whom  nothing  but  the  wide  ocean,  and 
the  savage  deserts  of  America,  could  hide  and  shel- 
ter from  the  fury  of  the  bishops!  Oh,  sir,  if  we 
could  but  see  the  shape  of  our  dear  mother  England, 
as  poets  are  wont  to  give  a  personal  form  to  what 
they  please,  how  would  she  appear,  think  ye,  but  in 
a  mourning  weed,  with  ashes   upon  her  head,  and 


56  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

tears  abundantly  flowing  from  her  eyes,  to  behold 
so  many  of  her  children  exposed  at  once,  and  thrust 
from  things  of  dearest  necessity,  because  their  con- 
science could  not  assent  to  things  which  the  bishops 
thought  indifferent!  " 

But  the  time  was  to  come  when  EnMand  was  to 
make  sis^nal  recog'nition  of  this  memorable  Exodus. 
Little  did  they  imagine,  —  those  pious,  humble, 
simple-hearted  men  and  women,  as  they  stood  on 
the  deck  of  their  little  bark  of  only  one  hundred  and 
eighty  tons'  burthen,  and  looked  wistfully  upon  their 
native  shores  receding  from  their  moistened  eyes,  — 
little  did  they  imagine  that  the  scene  of  that  embarka- 
tion, before  two  centuries  and  a  half  had  passed  away, 
should  not  only  be  among  the  most  cherished  orna- 
ments of  the  Rotundo  of  the  American  Capitol,  but 
should  be  found,  as  it  is  found  this  day,  among  the 
most  conspicuous  frescoes  in  the  corridors  of  the 
Parliament  Houses  of  Old  England.  Still  less  could 
the  haughty  Monarch  and  the  bigoted  Prelates,  who 
had  reluctantly  been  induced  "to  connive  and  wink 
at  their  departure,"  have  dreamed,  that  such  a  picture 
should  ever  be  warranted  and  welcomed  by  their 
successors,  as  one  of  the  appropriate  scenes  for 
inspiring  and  for  warning  them,  as  they  should 
sweep  along,  through  the  grand  galleries  of  State,  to 
their  places  on  the  throne  or  the  Episcopal  bench, 
in  that  gorgeous  Chamber  of  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  Lords  of  Great  Britain. 


ORATION.  57 

But  this  would  not  be  the  only  souvenir  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  which  might  sulfuse  the  cheeks  of 
a  Bancroft,  a  Wren,  or  a  Laud,  could  they  be  per- 
mitted to  revisit  the  scenes  of  their  old  prelatical 
intolerance  and  arrogance. 

The  suburban  residence  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
at  Fulham  has  many  charms.  Its  velvet  lawn,  its 
walks  upon  the  Thames,  its  grand  old  oaks  and 
cedars  of  Lebanon,  its  fine  historical  portraits,  its 
rare  librar}',  its  beautiful  modern  chapel,  and,  above 
all,  its  antique  hall,  recently  restored,  —  in  which  the 
cruel  Bonner  and  the  noble  Ridley  may  have  succes- 
sively held  their  councils  during  the  struggles  of  the 
Reformation,  and  where  Bancroft  and  Laud  may  have 
concerted  their  schemes  of  bigotry  and  persecution, — 
render  it  altogether  one  of  the  most  interesting  places 
near  London,  and  hardly  less  attractive  than  Lambeth 
itself.  I  have  been  privileged  to  visit  it  on  more 
than  one  of  those  delicious  afternoons  of  an  English 
June,  when  the  apartments  and  the  grounds  were 
thronged  by  all  that  was  most  distinguished  in  the 
society  of  the  Metropolis,  assembled  to  pay  their 
respects  to  one  whose  exalted  character,  and  earnest 
piety,  and  liberal  churchmanship,  and  unsparing 
devotion  to  the  humblest  as  well  as  the  highest 
duties  of  his  station,  have  won  for  him  universal 
esteem,  respect,  and  affection,  and  who  has  recently 
been  called  by  the  Queen  to  the  Primacy  of  all 
England.     But  I  need  hardl}'  say,  that  to  an  Ameri- 


58  riLGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

can,  or  certainly  to  a  New  England  eye,  there  was 
nothing  in  all  the  treasures  of  art,  or  of  antiquity,  or 
of  literature,  which  that  palace  contained,  —  nothing 
in  all  the  loveliness  of  its  natural  scenery  and  sur- 
roundings, nothing  in  all  the  historical  associations 
of  the  spot,  nothing  in  all  the  beauty  and  accom- 
plishments and  titled  or  untitled  celebrity  of  the 
company  gathered  beneath  the  roof  or  scattered 
upon  the  lawn, —  which  could  compare  for  a  moment 
with  the  interest  of  an  old  manuscript  volume,  which 
strangely  enough  had  found  its  way  there,  of  all 
places  in  the  world,  and  which  had  rested  for  three 
quarters  of  a  century  almost  unidentified  and  unrec- 
ognized on  its  library-shelves.  You  will  all  have 
anticipated  me  when  I  say  that  it  is  the  long-lost 
manuscript  volume,  of  which  but  a  small  portion  had 
ever  been  printed  or  copied,  written  by  the  hand  of 
William  Bradford  himself,  and  giving  the  detailed 
story  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  from  their  first  gather- 
ing at  Scrooby  down  to  the  year  1647. 

My  valued  friend,  Mr.  Charles  Deane,  to  whom, 
above  almost  all  others,  we  are  indebted  for  throw- 
ing light  upon  the  early  history  of  New  England,  in 
the  edition  of  this  volume  which  he  so  admirably 
prepared  and  annotated  for  the  Collections  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  has  sufficiently 
described  the  circumstances  of  its  discovery.  When 
the  glad  tidings  first  reached  us,  I  did  not  fail  to 
sympathize  with  those  who  felt  that  a  more  rightful 


ORATION.  59 

as  well  as  more  congenial  and  appropriate  place  for 
such  a  manuscript  might  be  found  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  But  after  a  little  more  reflection,  and 
after  we  had  secured  an  exact  and  complete  trans- 
cript of  it  for  publication,  I  could  not  help  feeling 
that  there  was  something  of  special  fitness  and  feli- 
city in  its  being  left  precisely  where  it  is.  There 
let  it  rest,  as  a  remembrancer  to  all  who  shall  suc- 
ceed, generation  after  generation,  to  that  famous 
See  and  its  charming  palace,  of  the  simple  faith,  the 
devoted  piety,  the  brave  obedience  to  the  dictates 
of  conscience,  of  those  who  led  the  way  in  the  col- 
onization of  New  England,  and  who  endured  so 
heroically  the  persecutions  and  perils  which  that 
great  enterprise   involved ! 

How  it  would  have  gratified  the  honest  heart  of 
Bradford  himself,  could  he  have  known  where  his 
precious  volume  should  at  length  be  found,  and  in 
what  estimation  it  should  be  held  after  it  was  found ! 
How  it  would  have  delighted  him  to  know  that 
instead  of  being  set  down  in  some  "  Index  Expur- 
gatorius,"  or  burned  at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  as  com- 
pounded of  heresy  and  blasphemy,  —  as  it  would 
have  been  by  those  who  dwelt  or  congregated  at 
Fulham  at  the  time  it  was  written,  —  it  should  be 
sacredly  guarded  among  the  heirlooms  of  the  palace 
and  its  successive  occupants!  How  much  more  it 
would  have  delighted  him  to  know  that  so  much  of 
the  simplicity  and  liberalit}^  of  form  and  faith  which 


60  n  I. GRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

it  portrayed  and  inculcated,  would  be  cherished  and 
exemplified  by  more  than  one  of  those  under  whose 
official  custody  it  was  in  these  latter  days  to  fall! 

Few  persons,  I  presume,  will  doubt  that  had  the 
Church  of  England,  between  1608  and  1620,  been 
what  it  is  to-da}^,  and  its  Bishops  and  Archbishops 
such  in  life  and  in  spirit  as  those  who  have  recently 
presided  at  London  and  Canterbury,  Brewster  and 
Bradford  would  hardly  have  left  Scrooby,  and  the 
Mayflower  might  long  have  been  employed  in  less 
interesting  ways  than  in  bringing  Separatists  to 
Plymouth  Rock.  As  that  church  and  its  prelates 
then  were,  let  us  thank  God  that  such  Separatists 
were  found!  An  Episcopalian  myself,  by  election 
as  well  as  by  education,  and  warmly  attached  to  the 
forms  and  the  faith  in  which  I  was  brought  up;  believ- 
ing that  the  Church  of  England  has  rendered  inesti- 
mable service  to  the  cause  of  religion  in  furnishing 
a  safe  and  sure  anchorage  in  so  many  stormy  times, 
when  the  minds  of  men  were  "  tossed  to  and  fro, 
and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine;" 
and  prizing  that  very  pra3'er-book,  —  which  was  dis- 
owned and  discarded  by  Bradford  and  Brewster, 
and  by  Winthrop,  too,  —  as  second  only  to  the  Bible 
in  the  richness  of  its  treasures  of  prayer  and  praise; 
I  yet  rejoice,  as  heartily  as  any  Congregationalist 
who  listens  to  me,  that  our  Pilgrim  Fathers  were 
Separatists. 

I   rejoice,  too,  that  the  Puritan  Fathers  of  Mas- 


ORATION.  61 

sachiisetts,  who  followed  them  to  these  shores 
ten  37ears  afterwards,  —  though,  to  the  last,  they 
"  esteemed  it  their  honor  to  call  the  Church  of 
England  their  dear  mother,  and  could  not  part  from 
their  native  countr}',  where  she  specially  resideth, 
without  much  sadness  of  heart  and  many  tears,"  — 
were,  if  not  technically  and  professedly,  yet  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  Separatists,  also;  —  Semi- 
Separatists  at  least,  as  Robinson  himself  was  called 
when  he  wrote  and  published  that  book  which  so 
offended  the  Brownists.  I  rejoice  that  the  prelatical 
assumptions  and  t3a-annies  of  that  day  were  re- 
sisted. The  Church  of  England  would  never  have 
been  the  noble  church  it  has  since  become,  had 
there  been  no  seasonable  protest  against  its  cor- 
ruptions, its  extravagant  formalism,  and  its  over- 
bearing intolerance.  The  earliest  Separatists  were 
those  who  separated  from  Rome;  and  when  some- 
thing more  than  a  disposition  was  manifested  to 
return  towards  Rome,  in  almost  every  thing  except 
the  acknowledgment  of  its  temporal  supremacy, 
another  separation  could  not  have  been,  ought 
not  to  have  been,  avoided.  A  serious  renewal  of 
such  manifestations  at  this  day,  I  need  not  say, 
would  rend  the  Anglican  Church  asunder  ;  and  its 
American  daughter  would,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, deservedly  share  its  fate.  Pretensions  of 
human  infallibility  need  not  be  proclaimed  by  an 
Ecumenical   Council    in    order  to  be  offensive    and 


62  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

abhorrent.  It  docs  not  require  a  conclave  of  Cardi- 
nals to  render  assumptions  and  proscriptions  and 
excommunications  odious.  Convocations  and  Con- 
ventions, and  even  Synods  and  Councils  and  Confer- 
ences, will  answer  just  as  well.  When  so  much  of 
the  discipline  of  the  English  Church  was  devoted  to 
matters  of  form  and  ceremony;  when  spiritualism 
was  in  danger  of  forgetting  its  first  S3dlable,  and  of 
degenerating  into  an  empty  ritualism;  when  godly 
ministers  were  silenced  for  "scrupling  the  vest- 
ments," or  for  preaching  an  evening  lecture,  and  men 
and  women  and  children  were  punished  for  not  bow- 
ing in  the  Creed,  or  kneeling  at  the  altar,  or  for  hav- 
ing family  prayers  under  their  own  roof,  — separation 
—  call  it  Schism,  if  you  will  — was  the  true  resort 
and  the  only  remedy.  For  the  sake  of  the  church 
itself,  but  a  thousand-fold  more  for  the  sake  of 
Christianity,  which  is  above  all  churches,  it  was 
needful  that  a  great  example  of  such  a  separation 
should  be  exhibited  at  all  hazards  and  at  any  sacri- 
fice. The  glorious  Luther,  to  whose  memory  that 
majestic  monument  has  so  recently  been  erected  at 
Worms,  had  furnished  such  an  example  in  his  own 
day  and  land,  and  with  relation  to  the  church  of 
which  he  had  once  been  a  devoted  disciple.  No 
name  ma}'  be  compared  with  his  name  in  the  grand 
calendar  of  Separatists.  But  our  Pilgrim  Fathers 
were  humble  followers  in  the  same  path  of  Protes- 
tantism, and  thanks  be  to  God  that  their  hearts  were 


ORATION.  63 

inspired    and     emboldened    to    imitate    his     heroic 
course. 

I  would  not  seem  too  harsh  towards  those  old 
prelates  of  the  English  Church,  b}'  whom  Pilgrims 
or  Puritans  were  persecuted.  Sir  James  Mackin- 
tosh, I  think,  has  somewhere  said,  that  if  the  United 
Netherlands  had  erected  a  statue  to  the  real  author 
of  all  their  liberties,  it  would  have  been  to  the  Duke 
of  Alva,  whose  abominable  tyranny  goaded  the 
Dutch  to  desperation,  and  drove  them  into  re- 
bellion. I  am  not  sure  that,  on  this  principle.  New 
England  might  not  well  include  Bancroft  and  Laud 
in  her  gallery  of  eminent  benefactors.  We  must 
never  forget,  however,  that  almost  all  great  move- 
ments are  but  the  resultants  of  opposing  forces;  and 
that,  in  impressing  upon  them  their  final  shape  and 
direction,  those  who  resist  are  hardly  less  effective 
than  those  who  support  and  urge.  Nor  can  it  be 
forgotten  that,  in  the  turn  of  the  wheel  of  England's 
fortunes,  poor  Laud  was  himself  destined  to  per- 
secution and  martyrdom.  It  must  have  been  a  grim 
joke,  when  Hugh  Peters  and  others  proposed  to  send 
him  over  to  New  England  for  punishment,  as  his 
Breviate  tells  us  they  did;  and  it  might  be  a  matter 
for  curious  conjecture  what  would  have  happened  to 
him,  had  he  come  here  then.  But  the  meekness 
and  bravery  and  Christian  heroism  with  which  he 
bore  his  fate,  when  so  wantonly  and  barbarously 
brought  to  the  block,  after  four  years  of  imprison- 


64  riLGRlM    ANNIVERSARY. 

mcnt  in  the  Tower,  are  almost  enough  to  make  us 
forget  that  he  was  ever  so  haughty  and  insolent  and 
cruel,  and  quite  enough  to  extinguish  all  resentment 
of  his  wrongs. 

But  let  me  not  longer  delay  to  acknowledge,  on 
this  occasion,  the  deep  debt  which  New  England  and 
our  whole  country  owes  to  the  Congregationalism 
which  the  Pilgrims  established  on  our  soil,  and  of 
which  the  very  first  church  in  America  was  planted 
by  them  here  at  Plymouth.  My  whole  heart  is  in 
sympathy  with  the  celebration  of  this  Jubilee  to  be 
held  in  my  native  city,  this  evening,  by  the  Con- 
gregationalists  of  our  land.  They  would  wrong 
themselves,  indeed,  as  well  as  all  who  are  not  of 
their  own  communion,  were  the}^  to  celebrate  it  in 
any  narrow,  controversial  spirit,  and  to  turn  a 
national  into  a  merely  denominational  anniversary. 
But  it  would  be  doing  them  deep  injustice  to  suggest 
or  imagine  such  a  thing.  They  have  a  right  to  cele- 
brate it,  and  they  will  celebrate  it,  as  a  day  whose 
associations  and  influences  have  far  outreached  every 
thing  sectarian  and  everything  sectional,  and  which 
are  as  comprehensive  as  the  land  they  live  in,  and 
as  all-embracing  as  the  Christianity  they  profess 
and  cherish. 

Few  persons,  if  any,  can  hesitate  to  agree  with 
them,  that  no  other  system  of  church  government 
than  Congregationalism  could  have  been  successful 
in   New  England  at  that  day.      No    other    system 


ORATION.  65 

could  have  done  so  much  for  religion  ;  no  other 
S3'stem  could  have  done  so  much  for  libert}^,  re- 
ligious or  civil.  "  The  meeting-house,  the  school- 
house,  and  the  training  field,"  said  old  John  Adams, 
"are  the  scenes  where  New  England  men  were 
formed."  He  did  not  intend  to  omit  the  town- 
house,  for  no  one  was  more  sensible  than  himself 
how  much  of  New  England  education  and  charac- 
ter was  owing  to  our  little  municipal  organizations, 
and  to  the  free  consultations  and  discussions  of  our 
little  town  meetings.  But  he  was  right  in  naming 
"  the  meeting-house  "  first.  Certainly,  for  the  cause 
of  religious  freedom,  no  other  security  could  have 
compared  with  the  independent  system  of  church 
government.  Independent  churches  prepared  the 
way  for  Independent  States  and  an  Independent 
Nation;  and  formed  the  earliest  and  most  enduring 
barriers  and  bulwarks  at  once  against  hierarchies 
and  monarchies. 

That  work  fully  and  finally  accomplished,  and 
civil  and  religious  freedom  securely  established,  we 
may  all  be  more  than  content,  we  all  ought  to 
rejoice,  as  we  witness  the  association  and  the  pros- 
perous advancement,  under  whatever  name  or  form 
they  may  choose  to  enroll  themselves,  of  "  all  who 
profess  and  call  themselves  Christians," — studying 
ever,  as  Edward  Winslow  tells  us  the  sainted 
Robinson  studied,  towards  his  latter  end,  "  peace 
and   union  as   far  as   miofht  ao-ree  with  faith   and  a 


66  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

good  conscience."  Let  those  who  will,  indulge  in 
the  dream,  or  cherish  the  waking  vision,  of  a  single 
universal  Church  on  earth,  recognized  and  accepted 
of  men,  whose  authority  is  binding  on  every  con- 
science and  decisive  of  every  point  of  faith  or  form. 
To  the  eye  of  God,  indeed,  such  a  Church  may  be 
visible  even  now,  in  "  the  blessed  company  of  all 
faithful  people,"  in  whatever  region  they  may  dwell, 
with  whatever  organization  they  may  be  connected, 
with  Him  as  their  head,  "  of  whom  the  whole  family 
in  earth  and  heaven  is  named."  And  as,  in  some 
grand  orchestra,  hundreds  of  performers,  each  with 
his  own  instrument  and  his  own  separate  score,  strike 
widely  variant  notes,  and  produce  sounds,  some- 
times in  close  succession  and  sometimes  at  length- 
ened intervals,  which  heard  alone  would  seem  to 
be  wanting  in  every  thing  like  method  or  melody, 
but  which  heard  together  are  found  delighting 
the  ear,  and  ravishing  the  soul,  with  a  flood  of 
magnificent  harmony,  as  they  give  concerted  ex- 
pression to  the  glowing  conceptions  of  some  mighty 
master,  like  him,  the  centennial  anniversary  of 
whose  birthday  has  just  been  commemorated, — 
even  so,  —  even  so,  it  may  be,  —  from  the  differing, 
broken,  and  often  seemingly  discordant  strains  of 
sincere  seekers  after  God,  the  Divine  ear,  upon 
which  no  lisp  of  the  voice  or  breathing  of  the  heart 
is  ever  lost,  catches  only  a  combined  and  glorious 
anthem  of  prayer  and  praise! 


ORATION.  67 

But  to  human  ears  such  harmonics  arc  not  vouch- 
safed. The  Church,  in  all  its  majestic  unity,  shall 
be  revealed  hereafter.  The  "Jerusalem,  which  is 
the  mother  of  us  all,  is  above;"  and  we  can  only 
humbly  hope  that,  in  the  providence  of  God,  its  gates 
shall  be  wider,  and  its  courts  fuller,  and  its  members 
quickened  and  multiplied,  by  the  very  differences  of 
form  and  of  doctrine  which  have  divided  Christians 
from  each  other  on  earth,  and  which  have  created 
something  of  competition  and  rivalry,  and  even  of 
contention,  in  their  efforts  to  advance  the  ends  of 
their  respective  denominations.  Absolute  religious 
uniformity,  as  poor  human  nature  is  now  constituted, 
would  but  too  certainly  be  the  cause,  if  it  were  not 
itself  the  consequence,  of  absolute  religious  indiffer- 
ence and  stagnation. 

Pardon  me,  fellow-citizens  and  friends,  for  a 
digression,  —  if  it  be  one,  —  in  which  I  may  almost 
seem  to  have  forgotten  that  I  have  been  privileged 
to  occupy  this  pulpit  only  for  a  temporary  and 
secular  purpose,  and  to  have  encroached  on  the  pre- 
rogative of  its  stated  incumbent;  but  coming  here, 
at  your  flattering  call,  to  unite  in  the  commemoration 
of  those  whose  special  distinction  it  was  to  have 
separated  from  the  communion  to  which  I  rejoice 
to  belong,  I  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to  give 
utterance  to  thoughts  which  are  always  uppermost 
in  my  mind,  when  I  reflect  on  this  period  of  New 
England  history.     I  hasten  now  to  resume  and  to 


68  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

finish  the  thread  of  that  Pilgrim  narrative  which  is 
the  legitimate  theme  of  my  discourse. 

I  must  not  detain  you  for  a  moment  by  the  details 
of  that  perilous  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  with  its 
"  many  fierce  storms,  with  which  the  ship  was 
badly  shaken  and  her  upper  works  made  very  leaky; 
and  one  of  the  mainbeams  in  the  midships  bowed 
and  cracked."  I  must  not  detain  you  by  dwelling 
on  that  "  serious  consultation  "  in  mid-ocean  about 
putting  back,  when  "  the  great  iron  screw  which 
the  passengers  brought  out  of  Holland  "  was  so 
providentially  found  "  for  the  buckling  of  the  main- 
beam,"  and  "raising  it  into  his  place."  All  this  is 
described  in  the  journal  of  Bradford  with  a  pathos 
and  a  power  which  could  not  be  surpassed. 

I  must  not  detain  you  either  by  attempting  to 
portray,  in  any  words  of  my  own,  their  arrival,  on  the 
2ist  of  November,  within  the  sheltering  arm  of 
yonder  noble  Cape,  —  "the  coast  fringed  with  ice  — 
dreary  forests,  interspersed  with  sand}^  tracts,  filling 
the  back  ground;" — "no  friendly  light-houses,  as 
yet,  hanging  out  their  cressets  on  your  headlands; 
no  brave  pilot  boat  hovering  like  a  sea-bird  on  the 
tops  of  the  waves,  to  guide  the  shattered  bark  to  its 
harbor;  no  charts  and  soundings  making  the  secret 
pathways  of  the  deep  plain  as  a  gravelled  road 
through  a  lawn."  All  this  was  depicted,  at  the 
great  second-centennial  celebration  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Barnstable,  by  my  lamented  friend  Edward 


ORATION.  69 

Everett,  with  a  grandeur  of  diction  and  imagery 
which  no  Hving  orator  can  approach.  They  seem 
still  ringing  in  my  ear  from  his  own  lips,  —  for  I 
was  by  his  side  on  that  occasion,  and  no  one  who 
heard  him  on  that  day  can  ever  forget  his  tones  or 
his  words,  as,  "  with  a  spirit  raised  above  mere 
natural  agencies,"  he  exclaimed, —  "  I  see  the  moun- 
tains of  New  England  rising  from  their  rocky 
thrones.  They  rush  forward  into  the  ocean,  settling 
down  as  they  advance,  and  there  they  range  them- 
selves, a  mighty  bulwark  around  the  heaven-directed 
vessel.  Yes,  the  everlasting  God  himself  stretches 
out  the  arm  of  his  mercy  and  his  power  in  substan- 
tial manifestation,  and  gathers  the  meek  company 
of  his  worshippers  as  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand!  " 

Nor  will  I  detain  you  for  a  moment  on  the  sim- 
ple but  solemn  covenant  which  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
formed  and  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  on 
that  same  2 1  st  of  November,  —  the  earliest  "  original 
compact "  of  self-government  of  which  we  have  any 
authentic  record  in  the  annals  of  our  race.  That 
has  had  ample  illustration  on  many  other  occasions, 
and  has  just  been  the  subject  of  special  commem- 
oration by  the  New  England  Historic-Genealogical 
Society  in  Boston. 

I  turn  at  once  to  what  concerns  this  day  and  this 
hour.  I  turn  at  once  to  that  third  exploring  party 
which  left  the  Mayflower  —  not  quite  blown  up  by 
the  rashness  of  a  mischievous  boy,  and  still  riding 


70  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

at  anchor  in  Cape  Cod  harbor  —  on  the  i6th  of 
December;  and  for  whose  wanderings  in  search  of 
a  final  phice  of  settlement  our  friend  Dr.  Dexter  has 
supplied  so  precise  a  chronological  table.  I  turn  to 
those  "  ten  of  our  men,"  with  "two  of  our  seamen," 
and  with  six  of  the  ship's  compan}^,  —  eighteen  in 
all,  —  in  an  open  shallop,  who,  after  spending  a 
large  part  of  two  days  "in  getting  clear  of  a  sandy 
point,  which  lay  within  less  than  a  furlong  of  the 
ship,"  —  "the  weather  being  very  cold  and  hard," 
two  of  their  number  "  very  sick  "  and  one  of  them 
almost  "  swooning  with  the  cold,"  and  the  gunner 
for  a  day  and  a  night  seemingly  "  sick  unto  death," 
—  found  "  smoother  water  and  better  sailing "  on 
the  17th,  but  "so  cold  that  the  water  froze  on  their 
clothes  and  made  them  many  times  like  coats  of 
iron;"  who  were  startled  at  midnight  by  "a  great 
and  hideous  cry,"  and  after  a  fearful  but  triumphant 
"  first  encounter,"  early  the  next  morning,  with  a 
band  of  Indians,  who  assailed  them  with  savage 
j^ells  and  showers  of  arrows,  and  after  a  hardly  less 
fearful  encounter  with  a  furious  storm,  which  "  split 
their  mast  in  three  -pieces,"  and  swept  them  so  far 
upon  the  breakers  that  the  cry  was  suddenly  heard 
from  the  helmsman,  "  About  with  her,  or  else  we  are 
all  cast  away,"  found  themselves  at  last,  when  the 
darkness  of  midnight  had  almost  overtaken  them, 
"under  the  lee  of  a  small  island,  and  remained  all  that 
night  in  safety,"  "  keeping  their  watch  in  the  rain." 


ORATION.  71 

There  they  passed  the  19th,  exploring  the  island, 
and  perhaps  repairing  their  shattered  mast.  The 
record  is  brief  but  suggestive:  "Here  we  made 
our  rendezvous  all  that  day,  being  Saturday,"  But 
briefer  still,  and  how  much  more  suggestive  and 
significant,  is  the  entry  of  the  following  day!  — 

"  10.  (20)  of  December,  on  the  Sabboth  day  wee 
rested." 

I  pause,  —  I  pause  for  a  moment, — at  that  most 
impressive  record.  Among  all  the  marvellous  con- 
cisenesses and  tersenesses  of  a  Thucydides  or  a  Taci- 
tus,—  condensing  a  whole  chapter  of  philosophy,  or 
the  whole  character  of  an  individual  or  a  people,  into 
the  compass  of  a  motto, —  I  know  of  nothing  terser 
or  more  condensed  than  this;  nor  any  thing  which 
develops  and  expands,  as  we  ponder  it,  into  a  fuller 
or  finer  or  more  characteristic  picture  of  those  whom 
it  describes.  "  On  the  Sabbath  day  we  rested."  It 
was  no  mere  secular  or  physical  rest.  The  day 
before  had  sufficed  for  that.  But  alone,  upon  a 
desert  island,  in  the  depths  of  a  stormy  winter;  well- 
nigh  without  food,  wholly  without  shelter;  after  a 
week  of  such  experiences,  such  exposure  and  hard- 
ship and  suffering,  that  the  bare  recital  at  this  hour 
almost  freezes  our  blood;  without  an  idea  that  the 
morrow  should  be  other  or  better  than  the  day 
before;  with  every  conceivable  motive,  on  their  own 
account,  and  on  account  of  those  whom  they  had 
left  in  the  ship,  to  lose   not  an  instant  of  time,  but 


72  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

to  hasten  and  hurry  forward  to  the  completion  of 
the  work  of  exploration  which  they  had  undertaken, 
—  they  still  "remembered  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep 
it  holy."     "  On  the  Sabbath  day  we  rested." 

It  does  not  require  one  to  sympathize  with  the 
extreme  Sabbatarian  strictness  of  Pilgrim  or  Puri- 
tan, in  order  to  be  touched  by  the  beauty  of  such 
a  record  and  of  such  an  example.  I  know  of  no 
monument  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  ancient  or 
modern,  which  would  appeal  more  forcibly  to  the 
hearts  of  all  who  reverence  an  implicit  and  heroic 
obedience  to  the  commandments  of  God,  than  would 
an  unadorned  stone  on  yonder  Clark's  island,  with 
the  simple  inscription,  "20  Dec.  1620  —  On  the 
Sabbath  day  we  rested."  There  is  none  to  which 
I  would  myself  more  eagerly  contribute.  But  it 
should  be  paid  for  by  the  penny  contributions  of 
the  Sabbath-school  children  of  all  denominations 
throughout  the  land,  among  whom  that  beautiful 
Jubilee  Medal  has  just  been  distributed. 

And  what  added  interest  is  given  to  that  record, 
what  added  force  to  that  example,  by  the  immediate 
sequel !  The  record  of  the  very  next  day  runs,  — 
"  On  Monday  we  sounded  the  harbour  and  found  it 
a  very  good  harbour  for  our  shipping;  we  marched 
also  into  the  land,  and  found  divers  corn-fields  and 
little  running  brooks,  a  place  very  good  for  situation; 
so  we  returned  to  our  ship  again  with  good  news  to 
the  rest  of  our  people,  which  did  much  comfort 
their  hearts." 


ORATION.  73 

That  was  the  clay,  my  friends,  which  we  are  here 
to  commemorate.  On  that  Monday,  the  21st  of 
December,  1620,  from  a  single  shallop,  those  "^^  ten 
of  our  men,"  with  "  two  of  our  seamen,"  and  with 
six  of  the  ship's  company,  landed  upon  this  shore. 
The  names  of  almost  all  of  them  are  given,  and 
should  not  fail  of  audible  mention  on  an  occasion 
like  this.  Miles  Standish  heads  the  roll.  John 
Carver  comes  second.  Then  follow  William  Brad- 
ford, Edward  Winslow,  John  Tilley,  Edward  Tilley, 
John  Rowland,  Richard  Warren,  Steven  Hopkins, 
and  Edward  Dotey.  The  "two  of  our  seamen" 
were  John  Alderton  and  Thomas  English;  and  the 
two  of  the  ship's  company  whose  names  are  recorded 
were  Master  Copin  and  Master  Clarke,  from  the 
latter  of  whom  the  Sabbath  island  was  called. 

They  have  landed.  They  have  landed  at  last, 
after  sixty-six  days  of  weary  and  perilous  naviga- 
tion since  bidding  a  final  farewell  to  the  receding 
shores  of  their  dear  native  country.  They  have 
landed  at  last;  and  when  the  sun  of  that  day  went 
down,  after  the  briefest  circuit  of  the  year,  New 
England  had  a  place  and  a  name  —  a  permanent 
place,  a  never  to  be  obliterated  name  —  in  the  his- 
tory, as  well  as  in  the  geography,  of  civilized 
Christian   man. 

"  They  whom  once  the  desert  beach 
Pent  within  its  bleak  domain,  — 
Soon  their  ample  sway  shall  stretch 
O'er  the  plenty  of  the  plain  !  " 
10 


74  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

I   will    not    sa}^    that   the    corner-stone    of    New 
England   had  quite    yet  been    laid.      But  its    sym- 
bol   and    perpetual    synonyme    had    certainly    been 
found.     That   one  grand    Rock,  —  even  then  with- 
out  its  fellow  along  the  shore,  and  destined   to   be 
without    its  fellow    on    any    shore   throughout    the 
world, —  Nature  had  laid  it,  —  The  Architect  of  the 
Universe  had  laid  it, — "  when  the  morning  stars  sang 
together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy." 
There  it  had  reposed,  unseen  of  human   eye,  the 
storms  and  floods  of  centuries  beatingf  and  breaking^ 
upon  it.     There  it  had  reposed,  awaiting  the  slow- 
coming  feet,  which,  guided  and  guarded  by  no  mere 
human  power,  were  now  to  make  it  famous  for  ever. 
The    Pilgrims    trod    it,   as   it  would    seem,   uncon- 
sciously, and  left  nothing  but  authentic  tradition  to 
identify  it.    "  Their  rock  was  not  as  our  rock."    Their 
thoughts  at  that  hour  were  upon  no  stone  of  earthly 
mould.     If  they  observed  at  all  what  was  beneath 
their  feet,   it  may   indeed    have   helped    them    still 
more  fervently  to  lift  their  eyes  to  Him  who  had 
been  predicted  and  promised  "  as  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  a  weary  land;"  and  may  have  given 
renewed   emphasis  to  the  psalm  which  perchance 
they  may  have  recalled,  — "  From  the  end  of  the 
earth  will  I  cry  unto  thee,  when  my  heart  is  over- 
whelmed: lead  me  to  the  rock  that  is  higher  than  I." 
Their  trust  was  only  on  the  Rock  of  Ages. 

We  have  had  many  glowing  descriptions  and  not 


ORATION.  75 

a  few  elaborate  pictures  of  this  da3''s  doings;  and  it 
has  sometimes  been  a  matter  of  contention  whether 
Mary  Chilton  or  John  Alden  first  leapt  upon  the 
shore,  —  a  question  which  the  late  Judge  Davis  pro- 
posed to  settle  by  humorousl}^  suggesting  that  the 
friends  of  John  Alden  should  give  place  to  the  lady, 
as  a  matter  of  gallantry.  But  the  Mayflower,  with 
John  Alden,  and  Mary  Chilton,  and  all  the  rest  of 
her  sex,  and  all  the  children,  was  still  in  the  harbor 
of  Cape  Cod.  The  aged  Brewster,  also,  was  on 
board  the  Mayflower  with  them;  and  sorel}'  needed 
must  his  presence  and  consolation  have  been,  as 
poor  Bradford  returned  to  the  ship,  after  a  week's 
absence,  to  find  that  his  wife  had  fallen  overboard 
and  was  drowned  the  ver}^  day  after  his  departure. 

I  may  not  dwell  on  these  or  any  other  details, 
except  to  recall  the  fact  that  on  Friday,  the  25th, 
they  weighed  anchor,  —  it  was  Christmas  Day, 
though  they  did  not  recognize  it,  as  so  many  of  us 
are  just  preparing  to  recognize  it,  as  the  brightest 
and  best  of  all  the.  days  of  the  year ;  —  that  on  Satur- 
day, the  26th,  the  Mayflower  "  came  safely  into  a 
safe  harbour;  "  and  that  on  Monday,  the  28th,  the 
landing  was  completed.  Not  only  was  the  time 
come  and  the  place  found,  but  the  whole  company 
of  those  who  were  for  ever  to  be  associated  v/ith  that 
time  and  that  place  were  gathered  at  last  where  we 
are  now  gathered  to  do  homage  to  their  memory. 

I  make  no  apology,  sons  and  daughters  of  New 


76  PILGRIM    ANNIVKUSAKY. 

England,  for  having  kept  always  in  the  foreground 
of  the  picture  I  have  attempted  to  draw,  the  relig- 
ious aspects  and  incidents  of  the  event  we  have 
come  to  commemorate.  Whatever  civil  or  political 
accompaniments  or  consequences  that  event  may 
have  had,  it  was  in  its  rise  and  progress,  in  its  incep- 
tion and  completion,  eminently  and  exclusively  a 
religious  movement.  The  Pilgrims  left  Scrooby  as 
a  church.  They  settled  in  Amsterdam  and  in 
Leyden  as  a  church.  They  embarked  in  the  Ma}^- 
flower  as  a  church.  They  came  to  New  England 
as  a  church;  and  Morton,  at  the  close  of  the  intro- 
duction to  Bradford's  Plistory,  as  given  by  Dr.  Young 
in  his  Chronicles,  entitles  it  "The  Church  of  Christ 
at  Plymouth  in  New  England,  first  begun  in  Old 
England,  and  carried  on  in  Holland  and  Plymouth 
aforesaid."  They  had  no  license,  indeed,  from 
either  Pope  or  Primate.  It  was  a  church  not  only 
without  a  bishop,  but  without  even  a  pastor;  with 
only  a  layman  to  lead  their  devotions  and  administer 
their  discipline.  A  grand  layman  he  was,  —  Elder 
Brewster:  it  v^ould  be  well  for  the  world  if  there 
were  more  laymen  like  him,  at  home  and  abroad. 
In  yonder  Bay,  it  is  true,  before  setting  foot  on  Cape 
Cod,  they  entered  into  a  compact  of  civil  govern- 
ment; but  the  reason  expressly  assigned  for  so  doing 
was,  that  "  some  of  the  strangers  amongst  them 
{i.  e.,  not  Leyden  men,  but  adventurers  who  joined 
them  in  England)  had  let  fall  in  the  ship  that  when 


ORATION.  77 

they  came  ashore  they  would  use  their  own  hberty, 
for  none  had  power  to  command  them,"  or,  as  else- 
where stated,  because  they  had  observed  "  some  not 
well  affected  to  unity  and  concord,  but  gave  some 
appearance  of  faction."  They  came  as  a  Church:  all 
else  was  incidental,  the  result  of  circumstances,  a 
protection  against  outsiders.  They  came  to  secure 
a  place  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
their  own  consciences,  free  from  the  molestations 
and  persecutions  which  they  had  encountered  in 
England;  and  free,  too,  from  the  uncongenial  sur- 
roundings, the  irregular  habits  of  life,  the  strange 
and  uncouth  language,  the  licentiousness  of  youth, 
the  manifold  temptations,  and  "  the  neglect  of  obser- 
vation of  the  Lord's  day  as  a  Sabbath,"  which  they 
had  so  lamented  in  Holland. 

We  cannot  be  too  often  reminded  that  it  was 
religion  which  effected  the  first  permanent  settle- 
ment in  New  England.  All  other  motives  had 
failed.  Commerce,  the  fisheries,  the  hope  of  dis- 
covering mines,  the  ambition  of  founding  Colonies, 
all  had  been  tried,  and  all  had  failed.  But  the  Pil- 
grims asked  of  God;  and  "He  gave  them  the 
heathen  for  their  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth  for  their  possession."  Religious 
faith  and  fear,  religious  hope  and  trust,  —  the  fear 
of  God,  the  love  of  Christ,  an  assured  faith  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  an  assured  hope  of  a  life  of 
bliss  and  blessedness  to   come,  —  these,  and  these 


78  riLCiKIM     ANNIVERSARY. 

al(jnc,  proved  sufficient  to  animate  and  strengthen 
them  for  the  endurance  of  all  the  toils  and  trials 
which  such  an  enterprise  involved.  Let  it  never 
be  forgotten  that  if  the  corner-stone  of  New  Eng- 
land was  indeed  laid  by  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  two 
centuries  and  a  half  ago  to-day,  it  was  in  the  cause 
of  religion  they  laid  it;  and  whatever  others  may 
have  built  upon  it  since,  or  may  build  upon  it  here- 
after,—  "gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  wood,  hay, 
stubble,"  —  God  forbid  that  on  this  Anniversary  the 
foundation  should  be  ignored  or  repudiated! 

As  we  look  back  ever  so  cursorily  on  the  great 
procession  of  American  History  as  it  starts  from  yon- 
der Rock,  and  winds  on  and  on  and  on  to  the  present 
hour,  we  may  descry  many  other  scenes,  many  other 
actors,  remote  and  recent,  in  other  parts  of  the 
Union  as  well  as  in  our  own,  of  the  highest  interest 
and  importance.  There  are  Conant  and  Endicott 
with  their  little  rudimental  plantations  at  Cape  Ann 
and  at  Salem.  There  is  the  elder  Winthrop,  with 
the  Massachusetts  Charter,  at  Boston,  of  whom  the 
latest  and  best  of  New  England  Historians  (Dr. 
Palfrey)  has  said  "  that  it  was  his  policy,  more  than 
any  other  man's,  that  organized  into  shape,  animated 
with  practical  vigor,  and  prepared  for  permanency, 
those  primeval  sentiments  and  institutions  that  have 
directed  the  course  of  thought  and  action  in  New 
England  in  later  times."  There  is  the  younger 
Winthrop,  not  far  behind,  with  the  Charter  of  Con- 


ORATION.  79 

necticiit,  of  whose  separate  Colonies  Hooker  and 
Haynes  and  Hopkins  and  Eaton  and  Davenport  and 
Ludlow  had  laid  the  foundations.  There  is  Roger 
Williams,  "  the  Apostle  of  soul  freedom,"  as  he  has 
been  called,  with  the  Charter  of  Rhode  Island. 
There  is  the  brave  and  generous  Stuyvesant  of  the 
New  Netherlands.  There  are  the  Catholic  Calverts, 
and  the  noble  Quaker  Penn,  building  up  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania  alike,  upon  principles  of  toleration 
and  philanthropy.  There  is  the  benevolent  and 
chivalrous  Oglethorpe,  assisted  by  Whitefield  and  the 
sainted  Wesleys,  planting  his  Moravian  Colon}'  in 
Georgia.  There  is  Franklin,  with  his  first  proposal  of 
a  Continental  Union,  and  with  his  countless  inven- 
tions in  political  as  well  as  physical  science.  There 
is  James  Otis  with  his  great  argument  against  Writs 
of  Assistance,  and  Samuel  Adams  with  his  inexor- 
able demand  for  the  removal  of  the  British  regi- 
ments from  Boston.  There  are  Quincy  with  his 
grand  remonstrance  against  the  Port  Bill,  and  War- 
ren, offering  himself  as  the  Proto-martyr  on  Bunker 
Hill.  There  is  Jefferson  with  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  fresh  from  his  own  pen,  with  John 
Adams  close  at  his  side,  as  its  "  Colossus  on  the 
floor  of  Congress."  There  are  Hamilton  and  Madi- 
son and  Jay  bringing  forward  the  Constitution  in 
their  united  arms;  and  there,  leaning  on  their 
shoulders,  and  on  that  Constitution,  but  towering 
above  them  all,  is  Washington,  the  consummate 


80  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

commander,  the  incomparable  President,  the  world- 
honored  Patriot.  There  are  Marshall  and  Story  as 
the  expounders  of  the  Constitution,  and  Webster  as 
its  defender.  There  is  John  Quincy  Adams  with 
his  powerful  and  persistent  plea  for  the  sacred 
Right  of  Petition.  There  is  Jackson  with  his  Proc- 
lamation against  Nullification.  There  is  Lincoln 
with  his  ever  memorable  Proclamation  of  Emanci- 
pation. And  there,  closing  for  the  moment  that 
procession  of  the  dead,  —  for  I  presume  not  to  mar- 
shal the  living,  —  is  George  Peabody,  with  his  world- 
wide munificence  and  his  countless  benefactions. 
Other  figures  ma}^  present  themselves  to  other  eyes 
as  that  grand  Panorama  is  unrolled.  Other  figures 
will  come  into  view  as  that  great  procession  ad- 
vances. But  be  it  prolonged,  as  we  pray  God  it  may 
be,  even  "  to  the  crack  of  doom,"  first  and  foremost, 
as  it  moves  on  and  on  in  radiant  files,  —  "searing 
the  eyeballs  "  of  oppressors  and  tyrants,  but  rejoic- 
ing the  hearts  of  the  lovers  of  freedom  throughout 
the  world,  —  will  ever  be  seen  and  recognized  the 
men  whom  we  commemorate  to-day,  —  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  of  New  England.  No  herald  announces 
their  approach.  No  pomp  or  parade  attends  their 
advent.  "Shielded  and  helmed  and  weapon'd  with 
the  truth,"  no  visible  guards  are  around  them, 
either  for  honor  or  defence.  Bravely  but  humbly, 
and  almost  unconsciously,  they  assume  their  peril- 
ous posts,  as   pioneers   of  an   advance  which  is  to 


ORATION.  81 

know  no  backward  steps,  until,  throughout  this 
Western  hemisphere,  it  shall  have  prepared  the 
way  of  the  Lord  and  of  liberty.  They  come  with 
no  charter  of  human  inspiration.  They  come  with 
nothing  but  the  open  Bible  in  their  hands,  leading  a 
march  of  civilization  and  human  freedom,  which 
shall  go  on  until  time  shall  be  no  more,  —  if  only 
that  Bible  shall  remain  open,  and  shall  be  accepted 
and  reverenced,  by  their  descendants  as  it  was  by 
themselves,  as  the  Word  of  God! 

It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  while  they  were 
just  taking  the  first  steps  in  the  movement  which 
terminated  at  Plymouth  Rock,  that  great  clerical 
Commission  was  appointed  b}'  King  James,  which 
prepared  what  has  ever3'where  been  received  as  the 
standard  English  version  of  the  Holy  Scriptures; 
and  which,  though  they  continued  to  use  the  Geneva 
Bible  themselves,  has  secured  to  their  children  and 
posterity  a  translation  which  is  the  choicest  treasure 
of  literature  as  well  as  of  religion.  Nor  can  I  fail 
to  remember,  with  the  warmest  interest,  that,  at  this 
moment,  while  we  are  engaged  in  this  Fifth  Jubilee 
Commemoration,  a  similar  Commission  is  employed, 
for  the  first  time,  in  subjecting  that  translation  to  the 
most  critical  revision;  —  not  with  a  view,  certainl}^, 
to  attempt  any  change  or  improvement  of  its  incom- 
parable style  and  language,  but  only  to  purge  the 
sacred  volume  from  every  human  interpolation  or 
error. 


82  ril.fJRIM     ANNIVERSARY. 

No  more  beautiful  scene  has  been  witnessed  in 
our  day  and  generation,  nor  one  more  auspicious 
of  that  Christian  unity  which  another  world  shall 
witness,  if  not  this,  than  the  scene  presented  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  in  the  exquisite  chapel  of 
Henry  VII.,  by  that  Revision  Commission,  in  imme- 
diate preparation  for  entering  on  their  great  task,  on 
the  morning  of  the  22d  of  June  last;  —  "such  a 
scene,"  as  the  accomplished  Dean  Alford  has  well 
said,  "  as  has  not  been  enacted  since  the  name  of 
Christ  was  first  named  in  Britain."  I  can  use  no 
other  words  than  his,  in  describing  it:  "Between 
the  latticed  shrine  of  King  Henry  VII.  and  the  flat 
pavement  tomb  of  Edward  VI.  was  spread  ^  God's 
board,'  and  round  that  pavement  tomb  knelt,  shoul- 
der to  shoulder,  bishops  and  dignitaries  of  the 
Church  of  England,  professors  of  her  Universities, 
divines  of  the  Scottish  Presbyterian  and  Free 
Churches,  and  of  the  Independent,  Baptist,  Wes- 
leyan.  Unitarian  Churches  in  England,  —  a  repre- 
sentative assembly,  such  as  our  Church  has  never 
before  gathered  under  her  wing,  of  the  Catholic 
Church  by  her  own  definition,  —  of  *"  all  who  profess 
and  call  themselves  Christians.' "  It  was  a  scene  to 
give  character  to  an  age;  and  should  the  commis- 
sion produce  no  other  valuable  fruit,  that  opening 
Communion  will  make  it  memorable  to  the  end  of 
time. 

Yes,  the  open  Bible  was  the  one  and  all-sufficient 


ORATION.  83 

support  and  reliance  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  They 
looked,  indeed,  for  other  and  greater  reformations 
in  religion  than  any  which  Luther  or  Calvin  had 
accomplished  or  advocated ;  but  they  looked  for 
them  to  come  from  a  better  understanding  and  a 
more  careful  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  not 
from  any  vain-glorious  human  wisdom  or  scientific 
investigations.  As  their  pastor  Robinson  said,  in 
his  farew^ell  discourse,  "  He  was  confident  the  Lord 
had  more  truth  and  light  yet  to  break  forth  out  of 
his  Holy  Word." 

Let  me  not  seem,  my  friends,  to  exaggerate  the 
importance  to  our  country  of  the  event  which  we 
this  day  celebrate.  The  Pilgrims  of  the  Mayflower 
did  not  establish  the  earliest  permanent  English  set- 
tlement within  the  territories  which  now  constitute 
our  beloved  country.  I  would  b}^  no  means  over- 
look or  disparage  the  prior  settlement  at  Jamestown 
in  Virginia.  The  Old  Dominion,  with  all  its  direct 
and  indirect  associations  with  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
and  with  Shakspeare's  accomplished  patron  and 
friend,  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  —  with  Pocahon- 
tas, too,  and  Captain. John  Smith,  —  must  always  be 
remembered  by  the  old  Colony  with  the  respect 
and  affection  due  to  an  elder  sister.  "I  said  an 
elder,  not  a  better."  Yet  we  may  well  envy  some  ot 
her  claims  to  distinction.  More  than  ten  years 
before  an  English  foot  had  planted  itself  on  the  soil 
of  New  England,  that  Virginia  Colony  had  effected 


84  riLGRIM    ANNIVEHSAUV. 

a  settlement  ;  and  more  than  a  year  bel'ore  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  —  on  the  30th  of  July, 
1619, —  the  first  Representative  Legislative  Assem- 
bly ever  held  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States 
was  convened  at  Jamestown.  That  Assembly 
passed  a  significant  Act  against  drunkenness;  and 
an  Act  somewhat  quaint  in  its  terms  and  provis- 
ions, but  whose  influence  might  not  be  unwhole- 
some at  this  day,  against  "excessive  apparel,"  — 
providing  that  every  man  should  be  assessed  in 
the  church  for  all  public  contributions,  "  if  he  be 
unmarried,  according  to  his  own  apparel;  if  he 
be  married,  according  to  his  own  and  his  wife's, 
or  either  of  their  apparel."  Such  a  statute  would 
have  been  called  puritanical,  if  it  had  emanated 
from  a  New  England  Legislature.  It  might  even 
now,  however,  do  something  to  diminish  the  di- 
mensions, and  simplify  the  material,  and  abate  the 
luxurious  extravagance,  of  modern  dress.  But  that 
first  Jamestown  Assembly  passed  another  most 
noble  Act,  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  and 
the  education  of  their  children,  which  entitles  Vir- 
ginia to  claim  pre-eminence,  or  certainly  priority, 
in  that  great  work  of  Christian  philanthropy,  for 
which  our  Fathers,  with  glorious  John  Eliot  at  their 
head,  did  so  much,  and  for  which  their  sons,  alas! 
have  accomplished  so  little,  —  unless,  perhaps, 
under  the  new  and  noble  Indian  policy  of  the  last 
twelve  months.     The  political  organization  of  Vir- 


ORATION.  85 

ginia  was  almost  mature,  while  that  of  New  England 
was  still  in  embryo. 

Again,  I  do  not  forget  that  the  Pilgrims  of  the 
Mayflower  built  up  no  great  City  or  Commonwealth. 
Within  the  first  three  months  after  their  landing, 
one-half  of  their  number  had  fallen  victims  to  the 
rigors  of  the  climate  and  the  hardships  of  their 
condition;  and  at  the  end  of  ten  years  the  whole 
population  of  the  Colony  —  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren —  did  not  exceed  three  hundred.  They  were 
but  as  a  voice  in  the  desert;  but  it  was  a  glorious 
voice,  and  one  which  was  destined  to  reverberate 
around  the  world,  and  ring  along  the  ages  with 
still  increasing  emphasis.  Other  Colonies,  by  the 
inspiration  and  encouragement  of  their  example, 
soon  succeeded  them,  and  did  the  substantial  work 
for  which  they  only  prepared  the  wa}^;  for  which 
they,  as  they  said  themselves,  were  but  "  stepping- 
stones."  The  great  "  Sufi:blk  Emigration  "  of  1630, 
—  "The  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay,"  —  coming  over  in  eleven  ships,  with  the 
whole  government  and  its  Charter,  were  the  main 
founders  and  builders  of  the  grand  old  Common- 
wealth, of  which  the  Plymouth  Colony,  sixty  years 
afterwards,  became  an  honored  part. 

It  is  pleasant  to  remember  how  harmoniously 
and  lovingly  the  two  Colonies  lived  together.  It  is 
pleasant  to  remember  that  parting  charge  of  John 
Cotton  to   the   Massachusetts  Company,  at  South- 


86  PILGRIM    ANMVERSAUY. 

ainpton,  "  that  the}'  should  take  advice  of  them  at 
Plymouth,  and  do  nothing  to  offend  them-"  I  can- 
not forget,  either,  the  cordial  visit  of  Governor 
Bradford  to  Governor  Winthrop  in  1631;  nor  that 
Winthrop  soon  afterwards  subjected  himself  to 
reproach  for  supplying  the  Pilgrims  with  powder, 
at  his  personal  cost,  in  a  moment  of  their  urgent 
danger  and  distress.  Still  less  can  I  forget  that 
October  day  in  1632,  when  Governor  Winthrop 
returned  Bradford's  visit,  coming  a  large  part  of 
the  way  here  on  foot,  and  crossing  the  river  on  the 
back  of  his  guide;  and  when  Bradford  and  Brews- 
ter and  Roger  Williams  and  Winthrop,  with  John 
Wilson,  the  first  pastor  of  Boston,  were  together 
on  this  spot,  engaging  in  religious  discourse, 
and  partaking  of  the  Sacrament  together.  That 
most  impressive  and  memorable  Communion  was 
at  once  the  harbinger  and  the  pledge,  the  predic- 
tion and  the  assurance,  of  the  peace  and  harmony, 
the  co-operation  and  concord,  which  were  long 
to  prevail  between  the  infant  Colonies  of  New 
England. 

True,  there  were  some  shades  of  difference  in  the 
religious  sentiment  and  in  the  civil  administration 
of  the  various  plantations,  as  they  were  successively 
developed.  The  charges  of  intolerance,  bigotry, 
superstition,  and  persecution,  which  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  special  delight,  in  some  quarters,  of  late 
years,  in  arraying  against  our  New  England  Fathers 


ORATION.  87 

and  founders,  apply  without  doubt  more  directly  to 
other  Colonies,  than  to  that  whose  landing  we  this 
day  commemorate.  The  Pilgrims  in  their  narrow 
retreat  of  rock  and  sand  were  but  little  disturbed 
b}'  "  intruders  and  dissentients,"  —  as  my  friend 
Dr.  Ellis  has  so  well  classified  them,  —  and  could 
afford  to  be  less  rigid  in  their  admissions  and  ex- 
clusions. Their  leaders,  too,  were  perhaps  of  a 
somewhat  more  lenient  and  liberal  temper  than 
those  who  settled  elsewhere.  Let  them  have  all 
the  honor  which  belongs  to  them;  and  let  censure 
and  condemnation  fall  wherever  it  is  deserved ! 
I  am  not  here  to  justify  or  excuse  all  the  extrava- 
gances, superstitions,  or  persecutions  of  the  Puritan 
Colonists.  But  still  less  am  I  here  to  pander  to  the 
prurient  malignity  of  those  who  are  never  weary 
of  prying  into  the  petty  faults  and  follies  of  our 
Fathers,  and  who  seem  to  gloat  and  exult  in  holding 
them  up  to  the  ridicule  and  reproach  of  their  chil- 
dren. As  if  those  great  hearts,  whether  of  1620 
or  1630,  had  tied  into  the  wilderness  to  assert  and 
vindicate  a  broad,  abstract,  unqualified  doctrine  of 
religious  liberty,  or  even  of  religious  toleration,  to 
which  they  had  afterwards  proved  recreant  them- 
selves! As  if  the  precarious  circumstances  of  their 
condition  —  with  savage  foes  watching  to  extirpate 
them,  with  famine  ever  staring  them  in  the  face, 
with  disease  and  death  menacing  them  in  every 
shape  and  at   every  turn  —  did   not   constrain   and 


88  PILGRfM    ANNIVERSARY, 

compel  them,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  their  career, 
to  adopt  the  principle  of  excluding  from  their 
community  any  and  all  who  were  bent  upon  intro- 
ducing contention  and  discord,  and  of  enforcing 
among  themselves  something  of  that  stern  martial 
rule  which  belongs  to  a  besieged  camp!  Why, 
even  Roger  Williams  himself  was  forced  to  intro- 
duce a  right  of  exclusion,  or  non-admission,  into 
his  original  articles  of  settlement  at  Providence. 
We  can  never  too  often  recall  the  language  of  the 
late  venerable  Josiah  Quincy,  —  the  last  man  of  our 
day  and  generation  —  I  had  almost  said  of  any  day 
and  generation —  to  palliate  real  bigotry  or  wanton 
intolerance,  —  when  he  said,  in  his  masterly  Dis- 
course on  the  Second  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the 
Settlement  of  Boston  in  1630  :  "  Had  our  early 
ancestors  adopted  the  course  we  at  this  day  are 
apt  to  deem  so  eas}'  and  obvious,  and  placed  their 
government  on  the  basis  of  liberty  for  all  sorts  of 
consciences,  it  would  have  been,  in  that  age,  a 
certain  introduction  of  anarchy.  .  .  .  The  non- 
toleration  which  characterized  our  early  ancestors, 
from  whatever  source  it  may  have  originated,  had 
undoubtedly  the  effect  they  intended  and  wnshed. 
It  excluded  from  influence,  in  their  infant  settle- 
ment, all  the  friends  and  adherents  of  the  ancient 
monarchy  and  hierarchy;  all  who,  from  any  mo- 
tive, ecclesiastical  or  civil,  were  disposed  to  disturb 
their  peace  or  their  churches.     They  considered  it 


ORATION.  89 

a  measure  of  ^  self-defence.'  And  it  is  unquestion- 
able that  it  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  forming  the 
homogeneous  and  exclusively  republican  character 
for  which  the  people  of  New  England  have,  in  all 
times,  been  distinguished;  and,  above  all,  that  it 
fixed  irrevocably  in  the  country  that  noble  security 
for  religious  liberty,  the  independent  system  of 
Church  Government." 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  differences  or 
disagreements  of  the  first  planters  of  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Bay,  of  New  Haven  and  of  Con- 
necticut, at  the  outset,  we  all  know  that  in  the 
summer  of  1643  these  four  original  Colonies  estab- 
lished that  noble  New  England  Confederation,  —  the 
model  and  prototype  of  the  Confederation  of  1778, 
which  "  blended  the  many-nationed  whole  in  one," 
and  carried  the  thirteen  American  Colonies  through 
the  War  of  Independence,  —  whose  grand  and 
comprehensive  preamble  is  alone  an  ample  reply 
to  all  who  would  magnify  one  Colony  at  the  ex- 
pense of  another:  — 

"Whereas  we  all  came  into  these  parts  of  Amer- 
ica with  one  and  the  same  end  and  aim,  namely,  to 
advance  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Gospel  in  purity  with 
peace:  And  whereas  in  our  settling  (by  a  wise 
providence  of  God)  we  are  further  dispersed  upon 
the  Seacoasts  and  Rivers  than  was  at  first  intended, 
so   that   we   cannot  according  to   our  desire   with 


90  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

convenience  communicate  in  one  Government  and 
Jurisdiction:  And  whereas  we  live  encompassed 
with  people  of  several  Nations  and  strange  lan- 
guages, which  hereafter  may  prove  injurious  to  us 
or  our  posterity:  And  forasmuch  as  the  Natives 
have  formerly  committed  sundry  insolences  and 
outrages  upon  several  plantations  of  the  English, 
and  have  of  late  combined  themselves  against  us: 
And  seeing  by  reason  of  those  sad  distractions  in 
England  which  they  have  heard  of,  and  by  which 
they  know  we  are  hindered  from  that  humble  way 
of  seeking  advice,  or  reaping  those  comfortable 
fruits  of  protection  which  at  other  times  we  might 
well  expect  :  We  therefore  do  conceive  it  our 
bounden  duty  without  delay  to  enter  into  a  present 
Consociation  amongst  ourselves,  for  mutual  help  and 
strength  in  all  our  future  concernments:  That  as  in 
Nation  and  Religion  so  in  other  respects  we  be 
and  continue  One,  according  to  the  tenor  and  true 
meaning  of  the  ensuing  Articles:  Wherefore  it  is 
fully  agreed  and  concluded  by  and  between  the 
parties  or  Jurisdictions  above-named,  and  they 
jointly  and  severally  do  by  these  presents  agree 
and  conclude.  That  they  all  be  and  henceforth  be 
called  by  the  name  of  The  United  Colonies  of 
New  England." 

The  very  next  clause  of  this  remarkable  Ordi- 
nance provided  as  follows  :  "  The  said  United 
Colonies   for   themselves    and    their  posterities    do 


ORATION.  91 

jointly  and  severally  hereby  enter  into  a  firm  and 
perpetual  league  of  fi-iendship  and  amity  for  otfence 
and  defence,  mutual  advice  and  succour,  upon  all 
just  occasions  both  for  preserving  and  propagating 
the  truth  and  liberties  of  the  Gospel  and  for  their 
own  mutual  safety  and  welfare."  And  another 
article  provided  for  intrusting  the  whole  manage- 
ment of  the  Confederation  to  two  Commissioners 
from  each  of  the  four  Jurisdictions,  carefully  add- 
ing, "  all  in  Church  fellowship  with  us,"  —  thus 
leaving  no  shadow  of  doubt  upon  the  point  that  it 
was  a  "  Consociation  "  for  religious  as  well  as  for 
political  peace  and  unity. 

Accordingly  we  find  among  the  proceedings  of  the 
Commissioners  at  New  Haven  in  1646  —  a  meeting 
at  which  neither  Bradford  nor  Winslow  nor  either  of 
the  Winthrops  was  present,  but  at  which  all  of  the 
four  Colonies  were  fully  represented,  and  to  whose 
proceedings  all  of  them  ultimately  subscribed  — 
that  most  memorable  Declaration  as  to  the  "  Spread- 
ing nature  of  Error  and  the  dangerous  growth  and 
eifects  thereof,"  "  under  a  deceitful  colour  of  liberty 
of  conscience,"  which  recommended,  among  other 
things,  that  '^  Anabaptism,  Familism,  Antinomian- 
ism,  and  generally  all  errours  of  a  like  nature,"  "be 
seasonably  and  duly  suppressed; "  and  which  con- 
cluded with  that  glowing  prediction  for  New  Eng- 
land: "  If  thus  we  be  for  God,  he  will  certainly 
be  with  us;  and  though  the  God  of  the  world  (as 


92  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

he  is  styled)  be  worshipped,  and  b}^  usurpation  set 
upon  liis  throne  in  the  main  and  greatest  part  of 
America,  yet  this  small  part  and  portion  may  be 
vindicated  as  by  the  right  hand  of  Jehovah,  and 
justl}'  called  Emmanuel's  land." 

I  do  not  forget  that,  in  reference  to  the  clause 
recommending  the  suppression  of  errors,  the  Pl}'!!!- 
outh  Commissioners  "  desired  further  considera- 
tion;" but  the  whole  Declaration  is  entered  upon 
the  Plymouth  Records  as  agreed  upon,  and  was 
ultimately  subscribed  alike  by  the  Commissioners 
of  all  the  Colonies. 

I  do  not  forget,  either,  that  all  New  England  was 
not  included  in  that  Confederation.  All  that  there 
was  of  New  Hampshire  was  indeed  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  But  we  miss  Rhode 
Island  from  the  historic  group.  We  miss  Clarke 
and  Coddington  and  Roger  Williams  from  the  roll 
of  the  Commissioners.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind, 
however,  that  it  was  not  because  the  Plantations 
at  Providence  and  the  Islands  were  opposed  to  the 
Confederation  or  any  of  its  articles,  that  they  were 
not  members  of  it.  Both  of  them  desired  and 
solicited  admission.  "  There  was  yet  another,  a 
fifth  New  England  Colony  (said  John  Quincy 
Adams  in  1843),  denied  admission  into  the  Union, 
and  furnishing,  in  its  broadest  latitude,  the  demon- 
stration of  that  conscientious,  contentious  spirit, 
which  so  signally  characterized   the  English   Puri- 


ORATION.  93 

tans  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  founders  of 
New  England,  of  all  the  liberties  of  the  British 
Nation,  and  of  the  ultimate  universal  freedom  of 
the  race  of  man.  The  founder  of  the  Colony  of 
Rhode  Island  (adds  he)  was  Roger  Williams,  a 
man  who  may  be  considered  the  very  impersona- 
tion of  this  combined  conscientious,  contentious 
spirit." 

Rhode  Island  may  well  afford  to  bear  with  equa- 
nimity any  charges  against  the  early  contentiousness 
of  her  founders,  in  view  of  the  glory  which  that 
very  contentiousness  has  acquired  for  her  on  the 
page  of  history.  "Roger  Williams  (says  Bancroft) 
was  the  tirst  person  in  modern  Christendom  to 
assert  in  its  plenitude  the  doctrine  of  the  liberty  of 
conscience,  the  equality  of  opinions  before  the  law; 
and  in  its  defence  he  was  the  harbinger  of  Milton, 
the  precursor  and  superior  of  Jerem}^  Taylor." 
The  man  upon  whose  tombstone  such  an  inscrip- 
tion, —  even  with  some  allowances  for  rhetorical 
exaggeration,  —  rnay  be  justly  written,  need  fear  no 
strictures  to  which  other  peculiarities  of  character 
or  conduct  may  subject  him.  I  have  an  hereditary 
disposition,  too,  to  be  not  only  just  but  tender 
towards  his  memory,  for  Williams  and  the  Win- 
throps  of  old,  in  spite  of  all  differences,  were  most 
loving  friends  from  first  to  last.  I  would  palliate 
not  a  particle  of  the  persecution  or  cruelty  which 
he   suffered;    from  whatever    source    it    may  have 


94  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

proceeded,  or  by  whomever  it  may  have  been 
prompted.  There  was  an  heroic  grandeur  in  his 
endurance  and  fortitude;  there  was  an  unsparing 
self-devotion  in  his  care  for  the  Indians;  there  was 
a  simplicit}^,  sincerity,  and  earnestness  in  his  whole 
career  and  character,  —  which  must  ever  command 
our  warmest  sympathy  and  admiration. 

But  it  would  be  gross  injustice  to  our  other  New 
England  Fathers,  and  especiall}^  to  our  Massa- 
chusetts Fathers,  not  to  admit  that  the  conduct  of 
Williams,  in  some  of  its  earlier  manifestations, 
was  too  precipitate  and  turbulent  to  be  compatible 
with  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  infant  Colonies, — 
denying,  as  Winslow  says  he  did,  the  lawfulness 
of  a  public  oath,  refusing  "  to  allow  the  colors  of 
our  nation,"  and  holding  forth  the  unlawfulness  of 
the  patent  from  the  king;  —  while  the  condition 
and  temper  of  the  plantations  of  Rhode  Island  — 
a  State  which  we  now  so  honor  and  love,  and  to 
which  we  owe  more  than  one  of  our  most  valued 
citizens  —  were  such,  at  that  time,  as  to  cause  even 
the  Plymouth  rulers  and  elders  to  say:  "Concerning 
the  Islanders,  we  have  no  conversing  with  them, 
nor  desire  to  have,  further  than  necessity  or  hu- 
manity may  require." 

But  with  the  exception  of  these  Rhode  Island 
Plantations,  which  were  still  very  small  and  scat- 
tered, New  England  was  then  one;  one,  not  only 
as  the    multiplied    States  of  our  American  Union 


ORATION.  95 

are  one  at  this  clay,  for  civil,  political,  and  military 
purposes;  but  one,  also,  in  a  unit}^  to  which  our 
Federal  Constitution  presents  no  counterpart;  — 
one  for  the  preservation  and  propagation  of  Relig- 
ion; a  Union  for  the  defence  and  diffusion  of  pure, 
Protestant  Christianity,  such  as  the  world  had 
hardly  ever  witnessed  before,  and  may  hardly  ever 
witness  again.  It  was  a  grand  Experiment,  con- 
ceived and  instituted  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  welfare  of  man's  estate.  But  a  higher  than 
human  power  had  long  ago  emphatically  declared, 
"My  Kingdom  is  not  of  this  world;"  and  the  re- 
sult gave  abundant  evidence  that,  on  this  Continent 
at  least,  the  Temporal  and  Spiritual  power  were 
not  destined  to  be  wielded  successfully  by  the 
same  hands.  Church  and  State  were  never  meant 
to  thrive  too^ether  on  American  soil.  It  remains 
to  be  seen  how  long  they  are  to  thrive  together 
anywhere. 

I  hasten  to  the  conclusion  of  this  discourse.  I 
may  not  attempt  to  pursue  the  thread  of  Pilgrim 
history  further  on  this  occasion.  We  all  know 
what  New  England  has  been  doing  since  the  days 
of  that  Confederation.  We  all  know  how  her  sons 
and  her  daughters,  besides  founding  and  building 
up  noble  institutions  within  her  own  limits,  have 
sought  homes  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  near 
and  remote,  and  how  powerfully  their  influence 
and    enterprise    have    everywhere  been     felt.      It 


96  PILCJRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

may  safely  be  said  tliat  there  is  hardly  a  State,  or 
county,  or  town,  or  village,  on  the  Continent,  in 
which  New  England  men  and  women  are  not 
turning  their  faces  towards  Plymouth  Rock  to- 
day with  something  of  the  affectionate  yearning 
of  children  towards  an  ancestral,  or  even  a  parental, 
home.  We  all  know  what  contributions  they  have 
made  to  the  cause  of  Education,  of  Learning,  of 
Literature,  of  Science,  and  of  Art.  We  all  know 
what  they  have  done  for  Commerce  on  the  ocean, 
and  for  Industry  on  the  land,  vexing  every  sea  with 
their  keels,  and  startling  every  waterfall  with  their 
looms.  We  all  know  what  examples  of  Patriotism 
and  Statesmanship  they  have  exhibited  in  every 
hour  of  Colonial  or  National  trial.  We  do  not  fail 
to  remember  that  New  England  led  the  march  to 
Independence  at  Lexington  and  Concord  and 
Bunker  Hill,  and  that  the  bones  of  her  sons  were 
mingled  with  almost  every  soil  on  which  the  bat- 
tles of  the  Revolution  were  fought.  Still  less  can 
we  forget  with  what  alacrit}^  and  heroic  self-sacri- 
iice  her  bravest  and  best  rushed  forth,  —  so  many 
of  them,  alas!  never  to  return,  —  for  the  defence 
of  the  Union,  in  the  great  struggle  which  has  so 
recently  terminated. 

But  we  are  not  here  to-day  to  boast  of  our  own 
exploits,  or  to  deal  with  the  events  of  our  own  day. 
It  becomes  us  rather  to  remember  our  own  short- 
comings and  our  own  unworthiness,  in  view  of  the 


ORATION.  97 

sublime  examples  of  piety,  endurance,  and  heroic 
valor  which  were  exhibited  by  those  "  holy  and 
humble  men  of  heart  "  by  whom  ou/  Colonies  were 
planted.  We  sometimes  assume  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  their  doings.  We  often  criticise  their  faults 
and  failings.  There  is  a  special  proneness  of  late 
years  to  deride  their  superstitions  and  denounce 
their  intolerance.  And  certainly  we  may  well 
rejoice  that  the  days  of  religious  bigotry  and  pro- 
scription are  over  in  our  land.  But  is  it  not  even 
more  true  at  this  hour,  than  when  no  less  liberal  a 
Christian  than  John  Quincy  Adams  uttered  the 
warning,  thirty  years  ago,  that  the  intensely  religious 
feelings  and  prejudices  of  our  infancy  have  not  only 
given  way  to  universal  toleration,  but  "  to  a  liberality 
of  doctrine  bordering  upon  the  extreme  of  a  falter- 
ing faith"?  God  forbid  that  our  own  religious 
freedom  should  ever  be  described  as  Gibbon 
described  that  of  the  age  of  Antoninus,  from  which 
he  dates  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire: 
"  The  various  modes  of  worship  (says  he)  w^hich 
prevailed  in  the  Roman  world  were  all  considered 
by  the  people  as  equally  true;  by  the  philosophers 
as  equally  false;  and  by  the  magistrates  as  equally 
useful.  And  thus  toleration  produced  not  only 
mutual  indulgence,  but  even  religious  concord." 
Such  a  spirit  of  toleration,  —  such  religious  liberty 
as  that,  —  even  in  an  age  of  Paganism,  gradually  led 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  great  Empire  of  the  Old 


98  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

World.  What  else  but  overthrow  can  it  accom- 
plish in  a  Christian  age  for  the  great  Republic  of  the 
New  World  ? 

May  it  not  be  wise  and  well  for  us  all  sometimes 
to  reflect  —  and  may  I  not  be  pardoned  for  con- 
cluding this  discourse  by  summoning  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  New  England,  here  and  everywhere, 
to  reflect  this  day  —  what  judgment  would  be  pro- 
nounced upon  us  by  our  Pilgrim  and  our  Puritan 
Fathers,  could  they  be  permitted  to  behold  and  to 
comprehend  the  grand  expansion  and  development 
which  we  now  witness  of  the  institutions  which 
they  planted  ?  Could  they  descend  among  us,  at  this 
moment,  in  bodily  presence,  and  with  organs  capa- 
ble of  embracing  at  a  glance  a  full  perception  and 
understanding  of  every  thing  which  has  been  accom- 
plished on  this  wide-spread  continent,  since  they 
were  withdrawn  from  these  earthly  scenes  and 
entered  into  their  rest,  —  what  would  they  think, 
what  would  they  say  ? 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the  surprise  with 
which  they  would  contemplate  the  existing  condition 
of  New  England,  and  of  the  mighty  nation  of  which 
it  forms  a  part.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the 
astonishment  with  which  they  would  regard  the 
great  inventions  and  improvements  of  modern 
times.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the  eager  and 
incredulous  amazement  with  which  Miles  Standish, 
for  instance,  would   listen   to   the  click   of  a  little 


ORATION.  99 

machine,  almost  at  his  own  old  doorway,  which 
could  supply  him  daily  and  hourl}'  with  the  latest 
phases  of  the  big  wars  in  Europe,  which  in  his  life- 
time he  could  only  have  studied  in  bulletins,  or 
broadsides,  or  "  books  of  the  news,"  not  much  less 
than  half  a  year  old.  It  is  not  difficult  to  conceive 
the  wonder  of  Edward  Winslow,  as  he  should  see, 
or  be  told  of,  some  noble  ship  traversing  the  wide 
Atlantic,  from  Land's  End  to  Cape  Cod,  with 
undeviating  regularity,  without  sails  and  against  the 
wind,  in  far  less  time  than  he  could  have  relied  on 
crossins  from  one  little  island  to  another  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea,  before  he  sunk  so  sadly  beneath  its 
waters.  It  is  not  difficult  to  picture  the  bewilder- 
ment of  Brewster  and  Bradford  as  they  should  listen 
to  the  rattling  and  whistling  and  thundering,  by  day 
and  by  night,  of  cars  bringing  more  passengers  than 
the  whole  population  of  Plymouth  in  their  day,  and 
more  freijjht  than  would  have  sustained  that  whole 
population  for  a  winter,  not  merely  from  Boston  in 
not  much  more  than  an  hour,  but  from  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  Ocean  in  not  much  more  than  a  week! 
It  is  easy  to  conceive  the  consternation  of  them  all, 
could  they  see  this  whole  assembly,  by  an  almost 
instantaneous  flash  of  sunlight,  grouped  and  pictured 
with  an  exactness  which  the  most  protracted  labors 
of  ancient  or  modern  art  could  never  have  reached. 
It  is  easy  to  conceive  their  rapture  should  they  wit- 
ness the  intensest  physical    agonies   of  the   human 


100  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

frame  charmed  to  sleep  by  the  inhalation  of  the 
vapor  of  a  few  drops  of  ether.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
stand how  astounded  they  would  be,  not  merely  at 
learning  that  all  those  phenomena  of  the  celestial 
bodies  which  had  so  often  perplexed  and  alarmed 
them  were  now  familiar  to  every  school-boy;  but 
at  being  specially  informed  that  to-morrow  there 
should  be  a  great  eclipse  of  the  sun,  total  in  some 
parts  of  the  world  though  hardly  visible  here;  and 
that  Science,  not  satisfied  with  calculating,  by  the 
old  processes  of  which  they  may  have  heard  some- 
thing before,  the  precise  instants  of  its  beginning 
and  end,  had  equipped  and  sent  out  formal  expedi- 
tions to  many  distant  lands  to  observe  and  record 
all   its   phases  and   incidents! 

We  can  readily  suppose  that  such  marvels  as 
these  would  not  be  taken  in  by  them  without 
reawakening  something  of  their  old  superstitious 
fear  and  awe;  and  we  might  expect  to  hear  from 
their  lips  some  exclamations,  if  not  about  "the  old 
Serpent,"  certainly  about  "  wonders  and  more  won- 
ders of  the  invisible  world."  But  we  need  not  resort 
to  these  miracles  of  science  and  art  in  order  to  illus- 
trate the  surprise  and  amazement  with  which  our 
Fathers  would  contemplate  the  condition  of  their 
posterity.  The  mere  extent,  population,  and  power 
of  our  countr}',  its  great  States,  its  magnificent 
cities,  its  vast  wealth,  its  commerce,  its  crops,  its 
industr}'',  its  education,  its   freedom,  —  no  longer  a 


ORATION.  101 

slave  upon  its  soil,  —  all,  all  of  all  races,  equal 
before  the  law,  —  what  else  could  they  desire  to 
fill  up  the  measure  of  our  development,  or  of  their 
own  delight!  What  more  could  they  possibly  wish 
to  complete  and  crown  the  vision  of  glory  vouch- 
safed to  them? 

Oh,  my  friends,  have  you  forgotten,  or  can  you 
imagine  that  they  would  forget  for  an  instant,  the 
cause  in  which  they  came  here?  Can  you  believe 
that  they  would  be  so  dazzled  and  blinded  by  the 
glare  of  mere  temporal  success  and  material  pros- 
perity, or  by  the  grandeur  of  intellectual  triumphs 
and  scientific  discoveries  and  philosophical  achieve- 
ments, as  to  lose  sight  and  thought  of  that  which 
animated  —  and,  I  had  almost  said,  constituted  — 
their  whole  mortal  existence?  Can  we  not  hear 
them  inquiring  eagerly  and  earnestly,  as  they  gaze 
upon  all  around  them,  "  Is  the  moral  welfare  of  the 
country  keeping  pace  with  its  material  progress? 
Has  religion  maintained  the  place  we  assigned  it, 
as  the  corner-stone  of  all  your  institutions?  Is  the 
Bible,  the  open  Bible,  which  we  brought  over  in 
our  hands,  still  reverenced  of  you  all  as  the  Word 
of  God?  Is  the  Lord's  Day  still  respected  and 
observed  as  a  day  of  religious  rest,  as  we  observed 
it  on  that  desolate  island  before  our  feet  had  stept 
upon  yonder  consecrated  rock?  Are  3^our  houses 
of  worship  proportionate  to  your  population  ?  Are 
there   worshippers   enough,   Sunday  by  Sunday,  to 


102  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

fill  the  houses  which  you  have?  Are  there  no 
temples  of  false  prophets  —  no  organized  communi- 
ties of  licentiousness,  under  the  color  of  religion  — 
in  your  land?  Are  there  none  among  you  who 
^  seek  unto  them  that  have  fiimiliar  spirits  and  unto 
wizards  that  peep  and  that  mutter,  —  for  the  living 
to  the  dead'?  Are  you  doing  your  full  part  in 
carrying  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen?  Or  are  you 
waiting  until  the  heathen  shall  have  come  over  into 
your  inheritance,  bringing  their  idols  with  them,  to 
cheapen  labor  and  to  dilute  your  own  civilization 
and  Christianity?  Are  your  schools  and  colleges 
still  dedicated,  as  we  dedicated  at  least  one  of 
them,  ^  to  Christ  and  the  Church'?  Is  there  no 
fear  that  your  science  has  been  emboldened  by  its 
triumphant  successes  to  overleap  the  bounds  of 
legitimate  investigation,  putting  Nature  to  the  rack 
to  wring  from  her,  if  it  were  possible,  some  denial, 
or  some  doubt,  of  that  great  Original,  whom  she 
has  always  rejoiced,  and  still  rejoices,  to  pro- 
claim? Is  there  no  fear  that  your  philosophy  has 
been  tempted  to  transcend  the  just  '^  limits  of  relig- 
ious thought,'  and  to  set  up  some  material  theory, 
or  some  self-styled  positive  system,  which  may  se- 
duce the  deluded  soul  from  its  hope  of  immortality, 
and  weaken,  if  not  destroy,  its  sense  of  the  need 
of  a  Saviour?  Is  there  no  fear  that  a  sentimental, 
sensational,  licentious  literature  is  corrupting  the 
tastes  and    sapping    the    morals  of  your    children. 


ORATION.  103 

and  rendering  the  universal  appetite  for  reading 
an  almost  doubtful  blessing?  Are  your  charities, 
public  and  private,  numerous  and  noble  as  they 
are,  altogether  commensurate  with  your  wealth? 
Or  is  the  larger  half  of  your  surplus  incomes  ab- 
sorbed in  a  cankering  and  debasing  luxury,  de- 
structive alike  to  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual  energy  of  all  who  indulge  in  it?  Are 
integrity  and  virtue  enthroned  in  your  hearts  and 
homes?  Have  they  a  recognized  and  undisputed 
sovereignty  in  the  market-place  and  on  the  ex- 
change? Or  are  vice  and  crime  making  not  a  few 
days  dark,  and  not  a  few  nights  hideous,  in  your 
crowded  cities?  Is  there  purity  and  principle  and 
honor  in  your  public  servants?  Or  are  corruption 
and  intrigue  and  fraud  threatening  to  make  havoc 
of  your  free  institutions,  rendering  all  things  venal, 
and  almost  all  things,  except  mere  party  disloyalty, 
venial,  in  your  State  and  National  Capitals  ?  " 

Such  questions  as  these,  I  am  conscious,  if  com- 
ing from  any  living  lips,  or,  certainly,  from  any 
living  layman's  lips,  might  be  jeered  at  as  savoring 
of  sanctimoniousness  and  fanaticism.  I  do  not  pre- 
sume to  ask  them  for  myself;  much  less  would  I 
presume  to  answer  them.  Make  what  allowance 
you  please  for  the  rigid  austerity  and  excessive 
scrupulousness  of  those  for  whom  I  am  only  an 
interpreter.  But  does  any  one  deny  or  doubt  that 
they  are  the  very  questions  which  would  be  asked 


104  riLGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

first,  and  most  eagerly  and  most  emphatically,  by 
those  whom  we  this  day  commemorate,  and  by 
those  who  were  associated  with  them  in  founding 
and  building  up  New  England  ? 

Can  we  not  hear  them,  at  this  moment,  solemnly 
warning  us,  lest,  in  the  pride  of  our  prosperity  and 
greatness,  "  when  our  silver  and  our  gold  is  mul- 
tiplied, and  all  that  we  have  is  multiplied,"  our 
hearts  be  lifted  up  to  say,  each  for  himself,  "  My 
power  and  the  might  of  mine  hand  hath  gotten 
me  this  wealth,"  while  the  great  lesson  of  our 
stewardship,  to  Him  to  whom  we  owe  it  all,  is 
forgotten  or  neglected? 

Can  we  not  hear  them,  at  this  moment,  solemnly 
warning  us,  lest,  in  the  pride  of  our  freedom  and 
independence,  we  forget  that  "the  liberty  we  are 
to  stand  for,  with  the  hazard  not  only  of  our 
goods,  but  of  our  lives  if  need  be,"  is  "  a  liberty 
for  that  only  which  is  good,  just,  and  honest,"  and 
not  a  liberty  to  be  used  as  a  cloak  of  malicious- 
ness and  licentiousness? 

Can  we  not  hear  them,  at  this  moment,  from 
yonder  hill  of  graves,  solemnly  and  affectionately 
warning  us  lest,  in  the  pride  of  our  science,  while  a 
thousand  telescopes  and  spectroscopes  are  ready  to 
be  levelled,  on  the  morrow,  at  the  orb  of  day,  — 
to  reveal  its  chromosphere  and  its  photosphere,  to 
measure  its  tornadoes,  to  detect  the  exact  nature  of 
its   corona,  and  to  mark  the  precise  instants   of  its 


OKATION.  105 

partial  or  total  obscuration,  —  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness, all  unobserved,  be  dimmed  and  darkened  in 
our  own  hearts,  and  an  Eclipse  of  Faith  be  suffered 
to  steal  and  settle  over  our  land,  whose  beginning 
ma}'  be  imperceptible,  and  its  end  bej'ond  calcula- 
tion ? 

Oh,  let  us  hear  and  heed  these  warnings  of  the 
fathers  to  the  children,  as  they  come  to  us  to-day, 
enforced  not  only  b}'  all  the  precious  memories  of 
their  faith  and  piety,  their  virtues  and  sacrifices  and 
sufferings,  but  b}'  all  the  lessons  and  experiences 
of  the  times  in  which  we  live!  We  need  not  look 
beyond  the  events  of  the  single  year  which  is  just 
closing,  —  this  Annus  Mirabilis,  compared  with 
which  that  of  Dr3'den  and  Defoe  was  without  sig- 
nificance or  consequence;  a  year,  more  marvellous 
in  its  manifestations  than  almost  any  which  has  pre- 
ceded it  since  the  great  year  of  our  Lord,  and  from 
whose  calendar  no  form  of  physical,  political,  or 
religious  convulsion  seems  to  have  been  wanting 
to  startle  and  confound  the  nations;  a  j-ear,  whose 
Christmas,  alas!  is  clouded  and  saddened  by  the 
continuance,  in  a  land  bound  to  us  by  memories 
not  yet  obliterated,  of  a  conflict  and  a  carnage 
which  must  fill  every  Christian  heart  with  horror, 
and  for  the  termination  of  which  we  would  de- 
voutly invoke  the  only  Intervention  which  has  not 


106  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

been,  and  which  cannot  be,  rejected ;  —  we  need  not, 
I  say,  look  beyond  the  events  of  this  single  jubilee 
year  of  the  Landing,  to  find  evidence  of  the  vanity 
of  all  human  ambition  and  the  impotence  of  all 
human  power,  and  to  see  renewed  and  startling 
proof  that  while 

"A  thousand  years  scarce  serve  to  form  a  State, 
An  hour  may  lay  it  in  the  dust." 

Let  us  not  be  deaf  to  the  warnings  of  the  Fathers. 
Let  us  not  be  insensible  to  the  lessons  of  the  hour. 
Let  us  resolve  that  no  National  growth  or  grandeur, 
no  civil  freedom  or  social  prosperity  or  individual 
success,  shall  ever  render  us  unmindful  of  those 
great  principles  of  piety  and  virtue  which  the 
Pilgrims  inculcated  and  exemplified.  Let  us 
resolve  that  whatever  else  this  nation  shall  be,  or 
shall  fail  to  be,  it  shall  still  and  always  be  a  Christian 
Nation,  in  the  full  comprehensiveness  and  true  sig- 
nificance of  that  glorious  term,  —  its  example  ever 
on  the  side  of  Peace  and  Justice;  its  eagle,  not 
only  with  the  shield  of  Union  and  Liberty  em- 
blazoned on  its  breast,  but,  like  that  of  many 
a  lectern  of  ancient  cathedral  or  modern  church, 
abroad  or  at  home,  ever  proudly  bearing  up  the 
open  Bible  on  its  outspread  wings!  And  then,  as 
year  after  year  shall  roll  over  our  land,  as  jubilee 
shall  succeed  jubilee,   and    our    children   and   our 


ORATION.  107 

children's  children  shall  gather  on  this  consecrated 
spot  to  celebrate  the  event  which  has  brought  us 
here  to-day,  those  grand  closing  words  of  Webster 
fifty  years  ago  —  the  only  words  worthy  to  sum  up 
the  emotions  of  an  hour  like  this,  and  send  them 
down  all  sparkling  and  blazing  to  the  remotest 
posterit}',  —  shall  be  repeated  and  repeated  by 
those  who  shall  successively  stand  where  he  then 
stood,  and  where  I  stand  now,  not  with  any  feeble 
expectation  or  faltering  hope  only,  but  with  that  firm 
persuasion,  that  undoubting  confidence,  that  assured 
trust  and  faith,  with  which  I  adopt  and  repeat 
them  as  the  closing  words  of  another  Jubilee  dis- 
course :  — 

"  Advance,  then,  ye  future  generations !  We 
would  hail  you,  as  you  rise  in  your  long  succession 
to  fill  the  places  which  we  now  fill,  and  to  taste 
the  blessings  of  existence  where  we  are  passing, 
and  soon  shall  have  passed,  our  own  human  dura- 
tion. We  bid  you  welcome  to  this  pleasant  land  of 
the  Fathers.  We  bid  you  welcome  to  the  healthful 
skies  and  the  verdant  fields  of  New  England.  We 
greet  your  accession  to  the  great  inheritance  which 
we  have  enjoyed.  We  welcome  you  to  the  bless- 
ings of  good  government  and  religious  liberty.  We 
welcome  you  to  the  treasures  of  science  and  the 
deliofhts  of  learninsf.  We  welcome  vou  to  the 
transcendent  sweets  of  domestic  life,  to  the  happi- 


108  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

ness  of  kindred  and  parents  and  children.  We 
welcome  you  to  the  immeasurable  blessings  of 
rational  existence,  the  immortal  hope  of  Christianity, 
and  the  light  of  everlasting  truth!  " 


NOTE. 

(Page  57.) 

The  following  inscription  in  the  Hall  of  the  Bishop  of  Loudon's 
Palace,  at  Fulham,  was  copied  for  me  most  kindly  by  my  vener- 
able friend  Bishop  McIlvaine,  of  Ohio  :  — 

"  This  Hall,  with  the  adjoining  quadrangle,  was  erected  by  Bishop 
Fitzjames  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  on  the  site  of  buildings  of  the  old 
Palace  as  ancient  as  the  Conquest.  It  was  used  as  the  Hall  by  Bishop 
Bonner  and  Bishop  Ridley,  during  the  struggles  of  the  Reformation, 
and  retained  its  original  pro[)ortious  till  it  was  altered  by  Bishop  Sher- 
lock in  the  reign  of  George  II.  Bishop  Howley,  in  the  reign  of 
George  IV.,  changed  it  into  a  private  unconsecrated  Chapel.  It  is  now 
restored  to  its  original  purpose  on  the  erection  by  Bishop  Tait  of  a 
new  Chapel  of  more  suitable  dimensions. 
"A.  D.  18(36." 

The  Palace  must  have  been  occupied  by  Richard  Bancroft, 
during  whose  intolerant  policy  the  Pilgrims  fled  to  Holland  ;  as 
he  was  Bishop  of  Loudon  for  some  years  before  becoming  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  It  must,  also,  have  been  occupied  by 
Laud,  from  whose  intolerance  the  Puritans  suffered  ;  as  he,  after 
serving  as  Bishop  of  St.  David's,  and  of  Bath  and  Wells,  was 
translated  to  London  in  1G28,  and  continued  in  that  See,  exer- 
cising great  influence  over  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  the  realm, 
until  he  succeeded  the  moi-e  liberal  Abbot  as  Primate  of  all 
England. 


PRAYER.  109 

VT. 

PRAYER. 

By  Rev.  Joskph  P.  TriOMPsoN,  D.D.,  of  Now  York. 

''  I  ''HINE,  O  Lord,  is  the  greatness,  and  tlie  power,  and  the 
glory,  and  the  victory,  and  the  majesty  ;  for  all  that  is 
in  the  heaven  and  in  the  earth  is  Thine.  Thine  is  the  king- 
dom, O  Lord  ;  and  Thou  art  exalted  as  Head  above  all. 
Both  riclies  and  honor  come  of  Thee  ;  and  in  Thy  hand  it 
is  to  make  jjreat,  and  to  oive  strength  unto  all.  To  Thee 
would  we  ascribe  all  pi'aise  and  dominion,  world  without  end. 

AVe  bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  given  to  Thy  Sox  the 
kingdom  upon  earth  ;  the  kingdom  of  truth  and  holiness,  of 
righteousness  and  grace  ;  the  kingdom  of  redeemed  and  sancti- 
fied souls,  which  shall  outlast  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world, 
and  against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail ;  —  that 
Thou  hast  preserved  Thy  Church  through  conflicts  with  the 
powers  of  evil,  through  perils  of  persecution,  and  the  more 
grievous  perils  of  corruption  and  apostasy  ;  that,  in  every 
age.  Thou  hast  raised  up  faithful  witnesses  to  Thy  truth,  the 
noble  army  of  martyrs  and  confessors,  who  continually  do 
praise  Thee. 

More  especially  do  we  this  day  bless  Thee,  the  God  of  our 
Fathers,  that  when  Reformation  itself  had  need  to  be 
reformed,  and  Thy  Church  to  be  delivered  from  the  powers 
of  this  world  and  the  remnants  of  superstition,  Thou  didst 
search  out  by  Thy  Spirit  the  elect  of  Thine  own  kingdom, 
and  didst  call  them  to  come  out  and  be  separate  as  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty  ;  that  they  heard  and 
obeyed  Thy  voice,  and,  trusting  alone  in  Christ  their  Saviour 
and  their  Lord,  committed  their  cause  unto  Hun,  in  honoring 
His  word  and  doing  His  will.  For  their  faith  and  patience, 
their   fidelity  and  devotion,    their   godly   conversation,    their 


110  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

lovino"  care  for  tlieir  posterity,  their  great  hope  and  inward 
zeal  for  the  advancement  of  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  in  these  remote  parts  of  the  world,  we  render  thanks 
to  Thee,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  didst  give  unto  them  courage 
answerable  to  the  great  and  honorable  actions  to  which  Thy 
providence  did  call  them  ;  — to  fulfil  all  the  Lord's  ways, 
made  known,  or  to  be  made  known  unto  them,  according  to 
their  best  endeavors,  whatever  it  might  cost  them,  the  Lord 
helping  them.  And  we  praise  Thee  that  Thou  didst  help 
them  to  suffer  all  things  for  Christ's  sake  and  the  gospel's  ; 
to  endure  bonds  and  stripes  and  imprisonment,  the  spoiling  of 
their  goods,  the  loss  of  home,  the  privations  of  exile,  the 
pains  of  death.  O  Thou  great  Head  of  the  Church,  who  in 
Thine  earthly  ministry  of  love  didst  endure  such  contradic- 
tion of  sinners  against  Thyself,  we  bless  Thee  that  Thou 
didst  strengthen  these  Thy  servants  with  Thine  own  strength, 
and  comfort  them  with  Thy  grace. 

O  Thou  who  leadest  Joseph  like  a  flock,  whose  way  is  in 
the  sea,  and  Thy  path  in  the  great  waters,  we  bless  Thee  that 
Thou  didst  guide  our  Fathers  across  the  sea  to  these  shores, 
didst  here  establish  them  in  peace  and  safety,  and  through 
them  establish  thy  Gospel  in  its  simplicity,  thy  Church  in  its 
purity,  and  a  Christian  people,  great  and  prosperous,  as  we 
are  before  Thee  at  this  day. 

Now  therefore,  O  Lord,  we  beseech  Thee,  have  respect 
unto  Thy  covenant,  and  incline  our  hearts  to  walk  in  the 
ways  of  our  Fathers,  as  they  followed  Christ  their  Redeemer. 
Thou  hast  set  in  order  before  us  our  sins  by  the  contrast  of 
their  godly  lives ;  and  we  acknowledge  our  shortcomings, 
and  confess  with  shame  our  unfaithfulness  to  Thy  mercies, 
and  to  the  goodly  and  blessed  heritage  unto  which  we  have 
succeeded.  O  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us  still,  and  for 
Christ's  sake  pardon  our   iniquities  ;  and   grant,  we   beseech 


PRAYER.  1 1 1 

Thee,  that  in  this  hi)ur  of  hallowed  and  grateful  memories, 
beneath  these  favoring  skies,  amid  the  tender  and  sacred 
associations  of  this  scene,  we  may  make  it  our  purpose,  by 
Thy  grace,  to  serve  Thee  as  our  Fathers  served  Thee  ;  to 
honor  Thy  Sabbath  as  they  honored  it ;  to  obey  Thy  word 
as  they  obeyed  it ;  to  be  ever  true  and  firm  for  the  right ;  to 
seek  the  glory  of  Thy  Kingdom  ;  and,  like  them,  to  set  Christ 
above  all,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  Him  as  our  life  and 
salvation. 

Almighty  God  who  keepest  covenant  and  mercy  for  them 
that  love  Thee,  we  bless  Thee  that  Thy  goodness  to  our 
Fathers  hath  been  continued  to  their  children  from  generation 
to  generation  ;  that  Thou  didst  preserve  our  infant  colonies, 
and  bind  them  together  in  a  union  of  States  ;  didst  carry 
them  through  the  storm  of  war,  and  set  them  on  high  among 
the  nations  ;  and  in  our  own  time,  when  all  that  we  as  a 
People  had  received  was  brought  into  peril  of  destruction, 
Thou  didst  revive  the  spirit  of  the  Pilgrims  and  their  faith 
and  hope  in  Thee,  and  inspii'e  our  sons  and  brothers  to  a 
like  courage  and  sacrifice  for  the  saving  of  the  Nation.  To 
Thy  name,  O  Lord,  be  the  glory,  that  freedom,  order,  and 
union  are  now  established  from  sea  to  sea ;  that  the  land 
which  in  the  beginning  was  a  refuge  from  oppression  no 
longer  harbors  oppression  within  its  borders  ;  and  we  pray 
Thee  that  the  peoples  gathered  here  from  every  land  may  be 
fused  and  moulded  into  one  Brotherhood,  dwelling  in  peace, 
seeking  one  another's  good,  and  acknowledijinw  one  God  and 
Father  over  all. 

Bless  all  who  are  in  authority  :  the  Governor  and  Legis- 
lature of  this  Commonwealth,  and  all  judges  and  magistrates  ; 
Thy  servant  the  President  of  the  United  States,  his  coun- 
sellors, the  Congress  of  the  Nation,  the  Army  and  Navy,  and 
all  who  are  in  places  of  power  and  tmist  throughout  the 
land.      Give  unto  them,  we  beseech  Thee,  wise  counsels,  and 


112  riLGllIM     ANNlVKltSARY. 

the  spirit  of  justice  su\d  peace.  Bles!>  all  schools  of  learning  ; 
and  grant,  we  humbly  j)ray  Thee,  that  these  may  ever  be 
consecrated  as  at  the  first  to  Christ  and  His  Church. 

We  supplicate  Thy  favor  upon  this  ancient  Church  and 
town,  praying  that  the  faith  and  spirit  of  the  Fathers  may 
here  abide  in  their  children.  Bless  Thy  holy  Church  uni- 
versal, and  fill  her  with  Thy  light  and  love.  O  Lord,  save 
Thy  people,  and  bless  Thine  heritage  ;  govern  them  and  lift 
them  up  for  ever. 

Thou  Prince  of  Peace,  who  art  Head  over  all  thinj^s  to 
Thy  Church,  we  beseech  Thee  hasten  the  return  of  peace 
among  the  nations  ;  and  from  all  the  commotions  and  terrors 
of  this  present  time  bring  forth  anew  the  beauty  and  order  of 
Thy  kingdom.  Have  compassion,  O  Lord,  upon  the  wounded 
and  dying,  the  sick  and  the  prisoner,  and  upon  all  whose 
hearts  and  homes  are  made  desolate  by  war  ;  and  bring  on 
the  blessed  day  when  the  nations  shall  learn  war  no  more. 
So,  through  the  ages  to  come,  may  the  truths  and  the  actions 
which  we  have  in  remembrance  this  day  exert  their  power 
for  the  recovery  of  mankind  unto  that  true  life  and  liberty 
which  are  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Keep  us,  O  Lord,  ever 
mindful  of  the  lessons  of  this  day.  May  we  carry  them  with 
us  to  our  homes  ;  may  we  teach  them  to  our  children  ;  may 
we  preserve  them  as  a  guide  and  help  in  all  our  pilgrimage, 
till  by  Thy  grace  we  too  shall  come  unto  the  spirits  of  just 
men  made  perfect,  to  the  general  assembly  and  Church  of 
the  first-born  in  the  Jerusalem  that  is  above  ;  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  Thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  wull  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in 
heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  Forgive  us  our 
trespasses,  as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass  against  us.  And 
lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil.  For 
Thine  is  the  Kingdom,  and  the  Power,  and  the  Glory,  for 
ever.     Amen. 


SERVICES    IN    THE    CHURCH.  113 

VII. 

HYMN. 

Composed  by  William  Cullen  Bryant,  of  New  York  ;  read  by  Rev. 
T.  E.  St.  Joiix,  of  Worcester ;  and  sung  by  the  Choir  to  the 
tune  of  "  Old  Hundred,"  with  Orchestral  Accompaniment. 

Wild  was  the  day,  the  wintry  sea 

Moaned  sadly  on  New  England's  strand, 
When  first,  the  thoughtful  and  the  free. 

Our  Fathers  trod  the  desert  land. 

They  little  thought  how  pure  a  light. 

With  years,  should  gather  round  that  day  ! 

How  love  should  keep  their  memories  bright ! 
How  wide  a  realm  their  sons  should  sway ! 

Green  are  their  bays  ;  and  greener  still 

Shall  round  their  spreading  fame  be  wreathed ; 

And  regions  now  untrod  shall  thrill 

With  reverence  when  their  names  are  breathed  ; 

Till  where  the  sun,  with  softer  fires, 

Looks  on  the  vast  Pacific's  sleep, 
The  children  of  the  Pilgrim  sires 

This  hallow'd  day  like  us  shall  keep. 

VIII. 

BENEDICTION. 

By  Rev.  Frederic  N.  Knapp. 

"  IMay  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God  our 
Father,  and  the  fellowship  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  be  and  abide  with  you 
now  and  for  ever.     Amen.'''' 

IX. 
VOLUNTARY. 

Selections  from  "  II  Trovatore,"  by  Gilmore's  Band. 


15 


THE    DINNER. 


A  T  the  conclusion  of  the  exercises  in  the  church  the  pro- 
cession at  once  re-formed,  and  marched  to  the  railway 
station,  where  the  dinner  took  place.  The  station-house  had 
been  closed  in,  the  tracks  floored  over,  the  hall  thoroughly- 
heated  and  neatly  decorated,  and  every  preparation  made  for 
lighting  it.  Plates  were  laid  for  nine  hundred  persons,  and 
every  seat  was  occupied.  Ladies  to  the  number  of  about 
three  hundred  had  been  admitted,  in  accordance  with  the 
plans  of  the  Committee,  and  were  seated  at  the  tables  when 
the  procession  arrived.  At  the  centre  of  the  guests'  table 
three  ancient  chairs  were  placed,  all  of  which  were  brought 
over  in  the  "  Mayflower,"  and  were  owned  by  Governor 
Carver  and  Elder  Brewster  and  Governor  Bradford.  The 
first  two  belong  to  the  Pilgrim  Society,  and  the  last  to 
Nathaniel  Russell,  Esq.,  of  Plymouth.  These  were 
occupied  by  the  Presiding  Officer,  the  Orator  of  the  Day, 
and  the  President  of  the  Society.  The  tables  were  arranged 
with  care  and  taste,  and  loaded  with  well-selected,  well- 
cooked,  and  well-served  viands,  reflecting  much  credit  on 
Mr.  Field,  the  caterer,  who  performed  the  service  required 
of  him  under  his  contract  in  a  manner  entirely  satisfactory 
to  the  Committee.^  Five  kernels  of  parched  corn  were 
placed  at  each  plate,  to  illustrate  the  extremity  to  which  the 
Pilgrims  were  at  one  time  reduced." 


116  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

At  about  half-past  three  o'clock  all  were  seated,  when 
Hon.  William  T.  Davis,  of  Plymouth,  rose  and  said,  — 

At  the  request  of  the  Hon.  Edavaud  S.  Tobey,  President 
of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  who  will  be  unable  to  remain  during 
the  dinner,  I,  as  Vice-President  of  the  Society  and  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  take  the  chair,  and 
shall  preside  over  this  festival. 

You  will  now  listen  to  a  blessing  from  the  Rev.  Henry 
M.  Dexter,  D.D.,  of  Boston. 

PRAYER   BY   REV.   DR.   DEXTER. 

Almighty  God,  who  didst  give  our  Fathers  grace  to  thank  Thee 
for  the  treasures  hid  in  the  sand,  and  by  their  faith  and  with  un- 
conquerable will  to  serve  Thee  in  their  narrow  circumstances,  grant 
unto  us,  their  children,  we  beseech  Thee,  grace  to  thank  Thee  for 
Thy  goodness  to  us,  through  them,  and  for  Thy  goodness  to  us  in  all 
things  ;  and  heljj  us  to  so  use  our  advantages  and  privileges  in  Thy 
service,  that  we  may  be  accepted  of  Thee,  as  they  were  ;  for  Christ's 
sake.     Amen. 

A  pleasant  hour  was  spent  in  relieving  the  tables  of  their 
load,  at  the  expiration  of  which  the  President  called  the 
company  to   order,  and   addressed  them  as  follows  :  — 

SPEECH   OF   HON.    WILLIAM   T.   DAVIS. 

Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Pilgrims  !  —  Why  are  you  gathered 
here  to-day  ?  What  has  brought  you  from  your  homes,  under  a 
winter  sky,  to  this  bleak  New  England  coast?  No  summer  land- 
scape greets  your  eyes  :  the  cold  billows  of  the  Atlantic  roll  and 
throw  their  spray  along  the  shore.  No  gentle  breezes  from  the 
verdant  hills  fan  your  heated  brows  :  the  chill  northern  blast  sweeps 
sadly  through  the  branches  of  our  leafless  woods.  What  charmed 
word  has  gone,  like  Scotland's  fiery  cross,  over  hills  and  plains  to 
summon  you  to  this  spot?  No  battle-field  of  the  war,  with  its 
silent  graves  and  sacred  memories,  stretches  out  before  your  feet, 
calling  you  to  a  new  consecration  to  your  country  and  your  flag  ; 
no  monument  to  the  immortal  dead  rears  its  shaft  aloft,  awaiting  its 
dedication  at  your  hands. 


THE    DINNER.  117 

No  battle-field  did  I  say  ?  Ah !  more  sacred  than  any  whicli 
ancient  or  modern  history  records  is  the  battle-field  on  which  you 
have  this  day  trod.  Agincoiirt,  Austerlitz,  Cannae,  Marathon, 
Thei"mopyla3,  stamped  as  they  are  on  the  historic  page  as  among 
the  decisive  battles  of  the  world,  sink  into  insignificance  beside  the 
battle  which  our  Fathers  fought  along  the  hill-sides  and  round  the 
Rock  of  Plymouth.  No  armed  hosts  with  shining  helmet  and 
waving  plume  met  here  in  battle  array;  no  trumpet  sounded  the 
charge ;  no  warrior's  lance  or  bristling  steel  met  the  opposing  foe  ; 
no  royal  hand  crowned  the  victorious  chief.  No  new  division  of 
regal  power,  no  readjustment  of  imperial  lines,  no  fate  of  potentate 
or  prince,  depended  on  the  issue.  But  in  that  battle  a  new  civiliza- 
tion asserted  its  claim  against  the  insolent  pretensions  of  the  old  ;  the 
rights  of  man  stood  up  against  the  domination  of  kings  ;  the  human 
conscience  fought  to  free  itself  from  the  shackles  of  servitude.  This 
was  the  battle  which  our  Fathers  fought ;  and  neither  hunger  nor 
hardship,  nor  the  terrible  uncertainties  of  the  future,  nor  the  allure- 
ments of  their  distant  home,  nor  pestilence  nor  death,  could  check 
their  courage  or  shake  their  faith.  With  the  battle  still  raging, 
ay,  well-nigh  lost ;  with  one-half  their  number  sleeping  in  their 
graves,  —  as  if  to  stimulate  a  trust  which  they  feared  might  fade, 
they  sent  their  only  refuge  back  across  the  seas,  and  sought  with  a 
serener  confidence  the  guidance  and  protection  of  their  God. 

Historians  record  and  poets  sing  that  the  Saracens  of  old  de- 
stroyed their  ships  when  they  landed  for  conquest  on  the  coast  of 
Spain.  But  those  Moslem  hosts  had  stood  on  the  shores  of  Africa 
flushed  with  victory,  sighing  for  new  lands  to  conquer,  and  they 
knew  their  arms  were  invincible.  A  brighter  page  and  a  sweeter 
song  shall  proclaim  to  nations  yet  unborn,  as  the  noblest  typifica- 
tion  of  faith  in  God,  that  sublimer  incident  in  Christian  history, 
the  return  of  the  "  Mayflower  "  to  England.^ 

Welcome,  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Pilgrims,  to  this  hallowed 
field.  Kneel  reverently  over  the  graves  of  your  fathers,  and  swear 
anew  your  allegiance  to  their  cause.  Inhale,  with  fullest  breath, 
the  atmosphere  of  this  sacred  spot ;  drink  long  and  deep  at  this 
fountain  of  our  Nation's  greatness.  Go  back  to  your  homes  with 
no  boast  of  your  lineage  on  your  lips,  but  with  the  vow  recorded  in 
your  hearts  to  make  yourselves  worthier  descendants  of  a  noble 
ancestry.  There  are  monumental  acts  as  well  as  monumental  edifices  ; 
and  even  when  the  memorial  on  yonder  hill  shall  in  tlie  fulness  of 


118  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

time  be  completely  finished,  aud  its  (iiij^jer  of  laitli  shall  point  up- 
ward to  the  skies,  let  us  remember  that  fidelity  to  duty  —  duty  to 
ourselves,  our  country,  and  our  God  —  will  be  the  noblest  monument 
which  the  children  can  rear  in  memory  of  the  virtues  and  sacriHces 
of  the  Piltfrim  Fathers  of  New  England. 

The  President.  —  I  propose,  as  the  first  regular  senti- 
ment, — 

The  Pilgrims  of  1620  :  Weak,  despised,  exiled,  they  conquered  a  conti- 
nent :   they  are  revolutionizing  the  world. 

I  call  upon  Hon.  Edward  S.  Tobey,  President  of  the 
Pilgrim   Society,   to   respond. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.   E.    S.   TOBEY. 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  —  To  respond  to  the  toast 
which  has  been  given  in  honor  of  men  of  whom  it  has  been 
justly  said  "  the  world  was  not  worthy  "  is  no  ordinary  task  ;  and  I 
might  well  wish,  on  your  account,  if  not  on  my  own,  that  some 
more  gifted  descendant  of  the  Pilgrims  had  been  selected  for  this 
duty. 

We  have  listened  to-day  to  the  eloquent  words  of  one  of  Massa- 
chusetts' most  gifted  sons,  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  honored 
Governor  Winthrop,  as  he  has  sketched  the  historic  picture  to 
which  he  has  left  little  to  be  added  by  those  who  are  now  gathered 
around  this  festive  board.  It  may  be  said,  however,  with  all  defer- 
ence to  him,  that  the  subject  is  too  vast  for  any  one  person,  on  any 
one  occasion,  to  entertain  even  a  hope  of  completing  it.  We 
may  repeat  —  indeed,  we  cannot  fail  to  repeat  —  many  of  the 
principles  and  thoughts  which  have  been  so  vividly  brought  before 
us  to-day.  I  have  intimated  that  the  "  master  hand  "  has  left  some 
portions  of  the  picture  not  quite  complete.  The  sentiment  just 
proposed  has  devolved  on  me  the  humble  task  of  adding  some  of 
the  lighter  shades  by  which  the  prominent  features  he  has  so 
boldly  sketched  may  stand  out  in  still  stronger  relief.  If  I  shall 
succeed  in  performing  even  that  subordinate  part,  as  I  shall  imper- 
fectly and  very  briefly  refer  to  the  more  recent  as  well  as  the  possible 
future  history  of  our  country  as  related  to  the  principles  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  I  may  not  wholly  fail  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  occasion. 


THE    DINNER.  119 

Two  centuries  and  a  half  have  rolled  away  since  our  Fathers 
placed  their  feet  on  yonder  hallowed  Rock ;  and  we  have  gathered 
from  every  part  of  our  land  around  this  ancestral  family  altar,  to 
lay  on  it  the  tribute  of  grateful  hearts.  Indeed,  what  more  can 
we  do  to-day  ?  Words  are  often  inadequate ;  they  are  transient. 
Deeds  are  immortal.  May  we  not  well  point  to  the  heroic  deeds  of 
the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims,  in  defence  of  the  Union,  as  some  evidence  of 
their  gratitude,  and  that  they  both  honor  and  appreciate  the  principles 
which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  this  Republic?  We  have  with  us  to- 
day, I  rejoice  to  see,  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  who  fought  on  many 
a  bloody  field,  and  have  thus  repeated  the  sacrifice  of  the  Fathers. 
On  my  left  is  one  of  the  distinguished  heroes  of  Gettysburg,  who 
rolled  back  the  tide  of  rebellion,  until  the  Union  flag  floated  victori- 
ously on  those  memorable  heights,  now  for  ever  made  historic.  Says 
my  informant,  "  I  asked  one  of  the  aids  of  General  Lee  to  what  he 
attributed  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  '  Why,'  said  he, 
'  we  expected  victory  as  much  as  we  expected  to  go  there,  but  every 
plan  we  laid  was  contravened  from  morning  till  night ;  and  I  be- 
lieve that  if  ever  God  deserted  our  cause,  it  was  there.' "  Yes,  my 
friends,  he  did  desert  it ;  indeed,  he  never  was  with  it.  But  he  was 
with  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  there,  in  the  persons  of  those 
who  carried  the  Union  army  to  victory.  Yes :  the  God  of  our 
Fathers  was  xoitli  them ;  and  then  and  there  the  tide  of  rebellion 
was  stayed,  the  national  government  delivered  from  the  hands  of  its 
enemies,  and  the  American  Union,  let  us  hope,  for  ever  established. 

Now  what  remains  for  this  Nation  is  to  go  forward  and  consum- 
mate this  work  through  the  oft-recognized  but  indispensable  agen- 
cies, —  the  open  Bible,  the  school-house,  the  meeting-house,  and,  last 
but  not  least,  through  that  without  which  even  the  Bible,  if  I  may 
say  it  reverently,  must  be  restricted  in  its  influence,  —  the  free 
ballot.  The  ballot  must  be  maintained  and  defended  at  any  and  all 
costs.  I  believe  that  every  patriotic  heart  in  this  land  felt  a 
deeper  thrill  when  it  was  known  that  he  who  once  carried  our  arms 
to  victory,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  had  the  courage  to 
say  by  the  presence  of  national  troops  in  the  city  of  New  York,  as  he 
doubtless  will  say  throughout  the  country,  "  The  ballot-box  must 
and  shall  be  protected." 

With  such  institutions  and  measures  let  this  Nation  go  forward. 
Let  us  fear  no  emigration  from  the  one  side  or  the  other.  This 
country  is  emphatically  the  asylum  for  the  oppressed  of  all  nations 


120  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Welcome  them  on  either  shore,  the  Atlantic  or  the  Pacific.  If  our 
Fathers,  in  the  wilderness  and  amidst  savages,  could  afford  to  trust 
in  their  Hihle  and  in  tlie  living  God, —  if  the  missionary  could  plant 
the  standard  of  the  cross  in  tiie  .Sandwich  Islands,  trusting  in  the 
God  of  our  Fathers,  until  those  islands,  converted  to  Christianity, 
now,  like  gems  in  mid  ocean,  flash  the  rays  of  Christian  civilization 
over  the  world,  —  cannot  their  descendants,  with  the  vast  moral 
resources  and  constantly  augmenting  power  of  this  Nation,  and  a 
faith  resting  on  the  same  enduring  foundations,  discharge  the  res})on- 
sible  trust  bequeathed  to  them,  of  transmitting  to  posterity,  and  ta  the 
people  of  all  nations  who  are  seeking  a  home  here,  the  institutions  of 
civil  and  religious  freedom  ?  America  is  indeed  destined  to  be  the 
educator  of  the  world.  Instead  of  relying  on  missionary  efforts  alone, 
invaluable  as  they  have  been  and  are,  to  Christianize  the  idolatrous 
nations,  many  circumstances  conspire  to  bring  the  people  of  foi'eign 
lands  to  our  shores  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  to  be  moulded  to 
Christianity  through  the  influence  of  our  institutions  as  well  as  by 
direct  teachings  of  the  Gospel.  Accepting  the  responsibilities  of  the 
hour  which  Providence  has  placed  on  this  Nation  let  it  ever  continue 
in  the  fulfilment  of  its  great  mission.  Thus  will  it  best  testify  its 
gratitude  to  the  founders  of  the  Repuldic,  and  may  confidently  hope 
for  the  continued  blessing  of  Almighty  God.  Then  shall  it  literally 
inherit  the  divine  promise  :  "  I  will  give  the  heathen  for  an  inherit- 
ance and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  a  possession." 

The  President.  —  I  have  received  by  telegraph  the  fol- 
lowing; toast  from  the  President  of  the  United  States  :  — 

Our  Pilgrim  Fathers :  May  their  children  ever  be  as  pure  in  motive,  as 
patient  in  toil,  and  as  brave  in  danger. 

The  President.  —  In  reply  to  that  sentiment,  I  will  give 

the  following  toast :  — 

The  President  of  the  United  States :  The  representative  of  forty  millions 
of  freemen,  sheltered  by  the  branches  of  tlie  tree  which  our  Fathers  planted. 

Hon.  Thomas  Russell  will  respond. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.   THOMAS   RUSSELL. 

The  name  of  the  President,  the  words  of  the  President,  move  all 
hearts.  As  his  message  unites  Washington  with  Plymouth,  so  the 
magic  of  eloquence  to-day  has  brought   1870  and   1620  into  full 


THE    DINNER.  I'il 

accord.  The  sentiment  suggests  a  wonderful  contrast:  Governor 
Carver,  with  his  hundred  shivering  exiles,  and  President  Grant, 
ruler  of  forty  millions  of  free  men,  —  of  a  land  greater  in  ideas  and 
principles  of  government  than  in  degrees  of  longitude  and  latitude. 
We  turn  from  the  poor,  lonely  "  Mayflower,"  with  timbers  strained 
and  rigging  torn,  staggering  into  Cape  Cod  harbor,  to  our  mighty 
fleet  sweeping  up  the  Mississippi  or  into  Mobile  Bay,  guided  by 
that  heart  of  oak,  our  good  and  gallant  Farragut.  We  contrast 
Miles  Standish  leading  his  half  score  of  soldiers  to  Middleboro'  or 
Weymouth,  with  Sherman  marching  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea  ; 
with  Grant  laying  hold  of  Vicksburg  and  crushing  rebellion  at 
Appomattox.  And  we  love  to  believe  that  all  the  glory  of  these 
days  was  prefigured  in  the  faith  of  the  days  of  old.  The  grim  jest 
of  our  Fathers  named  "  Billington  Sea "  in  remembrance  of  the 
wanderer  who  mistook  it  for  the  Pacific.  Yet  might  some  graver 
pilgrim,  as  he  stood  upon  the  Burial  Hill,  their  mount  of  vision, 
have  seen  afar  otF  a  country  stretching  from  ocean  to  ocean,  as  he 
cried  out  in  prophecy  — 

"  From  Eastern  rock  to  sunset  sea 
The  Continent  is  ours." 

I  find  strong  points  of  resemblance  in  the  great  hearts  of  these 
distant  ages.  Look  at  the  Indian  policy  of  our  Fathers,  — justice 
and  humanity,  equality  between  the  races  ;  the  unbroken  treaty 
made  on  the  hill  beyond  the  brook  ;  peace  secured  by  right.  Two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  have  passed  away.  Once  more  the  red 
man  is  treated  like  a  man  ;  and  once  more  the  world  learns  that  the 
truest  policy  is  justice.  Honor  to  the  Pilgrims  ;  honor  to  him  who 
renews  their  noble  policy.  I  find  a  broader  resemblance  in  the 
firm,  the  obstinate  devotion  to  duty  which  marks  the  hero  of  each 
age.  Often  might  General  Grant  and  his  associates  have  ex- 
claimed:  "It  is  not  with  us  as  with  men  whom  small  things  dis- 
courage." Just  here  our  Fathers  fought  out  their  battle  of  the 
wilderness.  And  they  were  determined  to  fight  it  out  on  the  line 
of  right  and  faith,  though  it  took  them  ten  winters  before  they  were 
reinforced  by  another  colony.  Grander  still  is  the  identity  of  prin- 
ciple. In  a  dark  hour,  when  the  only  light  for  Union  shone  round 
the  bayonets  of  the  Army  of  the  South- West,  General  Grant  uttered 
this  noble  sentiment :  '•  Human  freedom,  the  only  true  foundation 
for  human   government."     This   idea  embodied  in  action  gave  us 

16 


122  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

vic'toi'v.  Tliis  w;is  our  Fatlicrs'  creed.  FretMloiu  frnm  Imriiaii  con- 
trol in  matters  of  fhitli  —  sure  to  result  in  liccdoni  of  State  —  was 
their  guide.  Grand  is  the  compact  of  the  '•  iNIajilovver ;  "  but  many 
such  a  compact  bound  together  the  scattered  churches  of  the  i'ree. 
To-day  is  kept  sacred  by  a  great  sect,  eminent  in  ability  and  piety, 
who  celebrate  the  birth  of  Congregationalism  in  America.  They 
might  have  chosen  a  broader  word  ;  they  might  have  boasted  of  a 
greater  trium[)h.  Independency  —  yes,  Democracy  in  the  name  of 
Independency  —  stood  on  the  sacred  Rock,  and  claimed  the  continent 
for  its  own.  Because  Independents,  our  Fathers  were  tolerant,  free, 
fitted  to  found  a  free  State  on  a  free  Church.  We  honor  the  Puri- 
tans of  Old  Illngland  and  New  England,  as  we  honor  the  grand 
old  Church  out  of  which  the  Puritan  rock  was  hewed  ;  but  we 
cannot  forget  that  no  Puritan  came  in  the  ''  Mayflower."  Inde- 
pendents and  Separatists,  all  of  them,  every  man  of  ])rominence, 
except  Miles  Standi?h,  who  belonged  to  no  church,  except  the 
church  of  those  whose  creed  is  to  strike  down  wrong,  and  to  uphold 
the  weak.  As  I  speak  of  Captain  Standish,  I  love  to  recall  the 
fact  that  the  same  arm  which  smote  to  death  the  savage  Pecksuot 
was  tenderly  folded  around  sick  men  and  dying  women  and  famishing 
children, — glorious  symbol  of  the  Nation,  that  with  one  hand  smote 
armed  rebellion,  while  the  other  raised  up  a  poor,  despised,  oppressed 
race,  that  they  might  take  the  place  for  which  God  sent  them  into 
the  world.  And  this  last  triumph  of  right  we  owe  to  Pilgrim 
principles.  All  that  series  of  victories,  beginning  with  the  Declai'a- 
tion  of  Independence  and  ending  (no,  not  ending)  with  the  declara- 
tion of  the  equality  of  man, —  they  were  all  assured,  they  were  all 
DECREED,  when  a  new  world  became  the  possession  of  a  band  of 
earnest  men,  whose  faith  was  that  in  the  chief  concern  of  man  he 
had  no  superior,  save  his  Maker.  Once  the  Mayflower  of  the 
woods  was  the  emblem  of  our  country',  —  the  Mayflower,  shrinking 
from  the  cold,  hiding  under  the  leaves,  only  enduring  the  frost  in  the 
faith  of  approaching  spring.  Now  she  is  likened  to  the  spread- 
ing cedar,  to  the  proud  oak,  —  better  far,  as  the  Orator  of  to-day 
has  said,  our  nation  is  as  the  tree  of  life,  whose  leaves  are  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations,  —  yes,  at  last,  of  all  nations.  It  is  our 
faith  that  even  the  wickedness  of  war,  the  crimes  of  Emperors,  the 
madness  of  Kings,  shall  turn  the  hearts  of  men  to  the  lessons  of 
Plymouth  Rock,  to  the  example  of  the  American   Union. 


THE    DINNER.  123 

"  Take,  Freedom  !  take  thy  radiant  round  : 
When  dimmed,  revive;  when  lost,  return  ; 
Till  not  a  shrine  on  earth  be  found 
Whereon  thy  glories  sliall  not  burn." 

The  President  then  uiuiounced  the  next  regular  toast, 
as  follows  :  — 

Plymouth  unci  Jamestown  —  the  Pik/iims  and  the  Cavaliers  —  Freedom  and 
Slavery :  They  met  on  the  field  of  Gettysburg,  and  Freedom  conquered. 

The  President.  —  General  Hoavard,  the  hero  of  Gettys- 
burg. 

SPEECH   OF   GEN.    O.    0.   HOWARD. 

I  thank  you,  Mr.  Pre.sideut,  and  the  other  gentlemen  who  have 
been  instrumental  iu  inviting  me  to  be  present  on  this  occasion.  I 
have  really  been  to-day  a  learner,  and  from  my  entrance  into  the 
town  of  Plymoutli  until  this  moment  I  have  been  enjoying  a  per- 
petual feast.  I  thank  you  again  (or  the  sentiment  which  a  few 
moments  ago  I  read  for  the  first  time.  It  really  is  the  embodiment 
of  a  speech.  It  needs  very  little  to  elaborate  it.  Plymouth  and 
the  Pilgrims  on  one  side,  Jamestown  and  the  Cavaliers  on  the 
other,  —  the  conflict  which  Mr.  Seward  called  ''  irrepressible " 
between  Freedom  and  Slavery.  We  have  only  to  congratulate 
ourselves  to-day  that  slavery  is  no  more.  You  will  notice  in  that 
little  compact  which  was  made  before  the  Pilgrims  lauded,  that 
the  first  sentiment,  —  a  sentiment  which  is  to-day  repeated  in  every 
document,  and  quoted  in  every  speech  that  is  made  in  regard  to 
them,  —  the  first  sentiment  was  "  the  honor  and  glory  of  God." 
That  they  put  first  and  foremost ;  and  I  thank  the  Orator  of  th^^  Day 
with  all  my  sou!  for  his  fidelity,  that  he  kept  prominently  before  us, 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  discourse,  the  fundamental  sen- 
timent of  those  m^n,  our  Fathers,  who  came  to  this  country,  to  suffer, 
to  toil,  and  to  die,  that  they  might  perpetuate  the  principles  they 
held  so  dear  and  sacred.  I  would  that  we  might  to-day  stop  and 
think  and  pray,  and  go  back  to  that  original  principle  of  holding  up 
before  all  things  else  the  God  of  our  Fathers,  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  His  express  image.  If  we  would  only  be  loyal  to  Him, 
first  and  foremost,  then  indeed  and  in  truth  would  the  great  object 
of  the  conflict  to  which  I  have  referred  be;,  not  otdy  seemingly,  but 
in  reality  accomplished. 


124  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

But  it  seems  to  me,  as  we  listen  to  this  history,  as  we  rellecl  upon 
the  situation  to-day,  and  as  we  congratulate  ourselves  upon  what 
has  already  been  accomi)lished,  we  should  do  well,  as  our  Orator  has 
told  us,  to  stop  and  consider  our  shortcomings,  consider  our  errors, 
and  consider  how  we  have  departed  from  the  pure  and  simple  prin- 
ciples of  our  Fathers,  in  so  many  ways  ;  and  to  begin  anew,  to  repent, 
to  turn  back  unto  God,  become  loyal  to  His  Son,  our  Saviour,  and 
go  forth  into  the  field  of  conflict  again,  and  fight  luitil  the  end  of 
our  existence,  and  sow  seed  that  shall  spring  up  and  bear  fruit  for 
generations  to  come. 

Wiiat  is  this  conflict,  and  where  are  the  fields  on  which  it  is  to  be 
fouu-ht?  They  are  at  home  ;  they  are  in  our  families  ;  they  are  in 
our  churches  ;  they  are  in  our  towns,  of  which  this  town  of  Plymouth 
is  a  representative ;  they  are  throughout  our  borders.  The  fields 
are  wherever  the  foreigners  who  come  among  us  are  to  be  found; 
they  are  where  the  Indians  are  to-day ;  they  are  where  the  Chinese 
are.  Let  us  go  forth,  and  carry  the  banner  of  the  cross  wherever 
we  go,  and  fearlessly  plant  ourselves  on  the  simple  faith  of  the 
simple  and  true  church  of  the  Pilgrims.  God  grant  that  all 
the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  all  who  love  theil"  pure 
principles,  who  are  here  present  to-day,  may  be  prepared  to  make 
a  sacrifice  of  themselves  for  the  good  of  their  fellow-meu,  that  they 
may  establish  for  ever  in  their  own  households,  in  the  community, 
in  the  State,  in  these  blessed  United  States,  and  in  the  world,  that 
principle  which  is  above  every  other  principle,  which  is  expressed 
in  these  words,  that  are  inimitable :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Let  that 
neighbor  be  of  any  race,  whether  it  be  African  or  Anglo-Saxon, 
whether  it  be  Indian  or  Chinese  ;  from  whatever  region  of  the 
world  he  may  come.  God  grant  that  we  may  be  brave  enough  and 
pure  enough  to  carry  this .  leaven  with  us  wherever  we  go.  And 
may  the  time  soon  come  when  this  Nation  shall  be  a  purified  people, 
purified  unto  the  Lord  our  God,  and  when  we  shall  be  in  deed  and 
in  truth  a  missionary  nation,  to  carry  peace  and  good-will  wherever 
we  go,  and  to  carry  the  blessed  Gospel  into  every  part  of  the  known 
world. 

I  am  a  soldier.  I  have  endeavored  to  fight  your  battles  on  many 
a  field,  of  which  Gettysburg  has  been  referred  to  as  a  type ;  but  I 
tell  you  the  true  conflict  is  tliat  of  true  Christian  men  and  true 
Christian  women. 


THE    DINNER. 


125 


The  President  here  stated,  in  order  that  visitors  from 
abroad  might  feel  perfectly  easy  with  regard  to  the  de- 
parture of  trains,  that  arrangements  had  been  made  for  an 
expi'ess  and  way  train  to  Boston,  after  the  dinner,  and  that  he 
should  give  thirty  minutes'  notice  of  the  time  of  their  de- 
parture. 

He  then  recalled  to  mind  the  fact,  that  in  October,  1632, 
John  Winthrop,  the  Governor  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts, 
in  order  to  cultivate  friendship  with  the  Pilgrims,  made  an 
excursion  to  Plymouth,  and  was  two  days  on  his  way.  He 
followed  the  Indian  trail  through  Scituate,  Hanover,  Pem- 
broke, and  Kingston,  and  was  received  outside  of  the  town 
by  Governor  Bradford.  He  remained  in  Plymouth  over 
Sunday,  and,  as  the  tradition  states,  "  spoke  in  meeting." 
The  President  closed  these  prefatory  remarks  by  announcing 
as  the  next  regular  toast,  ^  — 

The  Orator  of  the  Day:  As  his  Puritan  ancestor  followed  the  trail  of 
the  Indians  to  speak  words  of  friendship  to  the  Pilgrims,  so  he  to-day  has 
followed  the  trail  of  his  ancestor,  and  spoken  words  of  wisdom  and  eloquence 
to  their  descendants. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.   ROBERT   C.   WINTHROP. 

3fr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  —  I  am  sure  the  whole 
company  will  agree  with  me  in  one  thing,  at  least ;  and  that  is  that 
my  voice  has  been  heard  for  a  sufficient  time  already  on  this  occasion. 
I  propose,  therefore,  in  a  very  iew  words  to  make  ray  acknowl- 
edgments to  you  all  for  this  kind  and  friendly  greeting,  and  for  the 
compliment  expressed  in  the  sentiment  just  offered.  I  hope  I  may 
be  allowed  to  take  it  as  the  welcome  assurance  that  I  have  not  al- 
together disappointed  my  audience  in  the  effort  I  have  made  to-day. 
You  know,  Mr.  President,  that  it  was  with  no  little  distrust  and 
hesitation  that  I  accepted  the  flattering  invitation  of  your  Com- 
mittee. I  could  not  forget  whom  I  was  to  follow.  That  man  en- 
counters no  easy  or  enviable  responsibility  who  attempts  to  glean  a 
field  over  which  have  already  successively  passed  the  broad  scythe 
of  Daniel  Webster  and  the  golden  sickle  of  Edward  Everett.  I  am 
conscious  of  having  followed  them  lonqn  tnterrallo,  in  more  senses 


126  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

of  the  words  thau  one.  I  inij^lit,  indeed,  elaiin  to  have  been  at  least 
one  day  ahead  of  them  both  ;  since  we  of  this  generation  have 
learned  that  we  are  not  quite  so  far  behind  our  Fathers  as  we  thought 
we  were,  and  that  the  21st  and  not  the  22d  of  December,  which 
they  celebrated,  is  the  true  date  of  the  landing  But  I  confess  to 
being  a  full  half  century  behind  at  least  one  of  them  in  every  other 
respect.  I  was  hardly  of  an  age  to  be  here  with  Webster  fifty  years 
ago.  At  any  I'ate,  I  was  not  here.  But  I  well  remember  how  the 
fame  of  that  oration  shook  every  school-bench  in  New  England,  and 
how  soon  it  supplied  the  choicest  pieces  of  declamation  for  every 
Si;hool-boy.  Four  years  afterward  I  was  hei'e ;  and  I  shall  not 
soon  forget  that  long,  wintry  stage-coach  drive  of  ten  or  twelve 
hours  each  way,  in  company,  I  am  glad  to  remember,  with  one  of 
your  own  townsmen,  who  has  long  since  been  at  the  head  of  our 
Boston  Bar  (Hon.  Sidney  Bartlett),  and  in  company  too,  I  believe,  — :- 
for  certainly  we  were  here  together,  —  with  the  excellent  pastor  of 
our  Boston  Brattle  Street  Church  (Rev.  Dr.  Lothrop).  But  still 
less  can  I  forget  how  abundantly  and  superabundantly  we  were 
all  rewarded  for  the  fatigues  and  exposures  of  our  journey  by  the 
magnificent  oration  of  Edward  Everett. 

May  I  be  pardoned,  however,  for  adding  that  it  was  not  only 
the  vivid  remembrance  of  what  others  had  done  here  so  gloriously 
which  made  me  shrink  from  undertaking  the  task  you  assigned  me  ? 
May  I  be  pardoned  for  confessing  that  I  was  a  little  afraid  of  my  own 
shadow  ?  I  could  not  quite  forget  that  in  the  city  of  New  York,  at 
the  call  of  the  New  England  Society  there,  I  had  gone  over  the  same 
ground  thirty-one  years  ago  to-morrow.  I  was  then  but  half  as  old 
as  I  am  now,  and  had  all  the  energy  and  ambition  of  youth.  It  was 
my  very  first  Occasional  Address  anywhere,  I  believe ;  and  I  had 
spared  no  pains  in  its  preparation.  It  was  two  hours  and  ten  minutes 
in  delivery ;  and  I  remember  that  at  the  end  my  cherished  and 
lamented  friend,  the  late  Bishop  Wainwright,  who  had  sat  near  me, 
called  my  attention  to  the  fact,  of  which  I  had  been  entirely  uncon- 
scious, that  my  manuscript  had  been  upside  down  during  the  whole 
time.  I  should  not  dare  to  tj-ust  my  memory  with  such  a  load  in 
these  later  years  of  mv  life.  And,  indeed,  I  despaired  of  being  able 
to  compose  another  address  on  the  same  subject  half  as  good  as  that 
was  ;  and  I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  I  have  done  so.  But  while  I 
was  pondering  upon  these  and  other  discouragements  and  difficulties,  I 
suddenlv  bethought  me  of  that  old  Massachusetts  Colony,  with  which 


THE    DINNER.  127 

you  have  so  kindly  associated  me.  I  bethought  me  what  a  comfort, 
what  a  delight,  it  must  have  been  to  them  on  their  arrival  at  Salem, 
in  tiie  first  desolation  of  their  condition,  not  only  to  find  Endicott  and 
Higginsou  on  the  spot  awaiting  them  ;  but  to  know  that  Bradford  and 
Brewster  and  Wiuslow  were  already  established  here  at  Plymouth, 
ready  and  eager  to  exchange,  as  they  did  exchange,  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship  with  them.^°  I  bethought  me  of  that  noble  first  Gover- 
nor (John  Winthrop),  whose  blood  to-day  seems  coursing  through 
my  veins  in  a  fuller  tide  than  ever  before,  and  whose  image  seemed 
to  rebuke  me  for  hesitating  an  instant  to  speak  in  his  name,  as  well 
as  in  my  own,  in  honor  of  the  Pilgrims.  He  reminded  me  of  the 
powder  which  he  had  himself  furnished  them,  in  a  time  of  their  dis- 
tress and  danger,  at  his  own  cost,  and  how  gratefully  it  was  received 
and  acknowledged  by  them.  And  so,  Mr.  President,  while  I  was 
musing,  the  fire  burned,  and  I  resolved  to  speak  with  my  tongue,  as 
I  have  spoken  to-day.  I  resolved,  in  a  word,  that  I  would  not  de- 
cline to  supply  to  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims,  for  their  occasion 
and  at  their  call,  such  ammunition  as  I  could  muster,  even  should  it 
be  at  my  own  cost ;  —  feeling  sure  that  they  would  make  all  proper 
allowances  for  the  fact  that  others  had  alread}"  exhausted  the  essen- 
tial ingredient  for  such  a  composition,  —  that  Attic  salt,  which  is 
as  necessary  for  an  oration  as  saltpetre  is  fur  gunpowder." 

But  I  have  occupied  far  more  of  the  time  of  this  occasion  than 
belongs  to  me  ;  and  I  must  not  delay  you  longer,  while  so  many  others 
remain  to  be  called  on.  Let  me  only  say  that  as  the  Pilgrims  gave 
me  the  earliest  inspiration  iii  the  way  of  occasional  oratory,  I  shall 
be  more  than  content  if  they  shall  have  afforded  me  the  last.  If  I 
have  had  any  faculty  in  dealing  with  such  occasions  as  this,  —  and  I 
am  sensible  how  small  it  is,  —  I  am  ready  to  say  to-day  at  Plymouth 
Rock,  "/^{c  cestiis  artemque  repono"  I  can  certainly  say  that  I 
shall  be  present  in  the  body  at  no  other  Pilgrim  Jubilee.  Let  me 
only  hasten,  then,  to  thank  you  and  your  Society,  and  all  who  have 
so  kindly  listened  to  me,  for  the  distinguished  compliment  which  has 
been  paid  me,  and  let  me  propose  as  a  sentiment,  — 

The  Sons  and  Daughters  of  New  England:  Wherever  they 
may  be  gathered,  and  wherever  they  may  be  scattered,  here  and  in 
every  clime,  now  and  to  the  end  of  time,  may  they  never  forget  the 
Rock,  nor  ever  fail  to  be  true  to  the  memory  and  the  example  of 
those  who  landed  upon  it. 


128  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

The  President.  — 1  will  read  as  the  next  sentiment :  — 

The  distinguished  Son  of  the  Orator  of  1824  :  More  fortunate  than  his  fatlier 
in  tracing  liis  descent  from  tlie  Pilgrims. 

I  will  introduce  to  you  William  Everett,  Esq. 

POEM   BY   WILLIAM   EVERETT,   ESQ. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen^  —  I  was  requested  a  short  time  ago 
by  the  Chairman  to  furnish  something  in  verse  for  this  occasion; 
and  as  I  was  not  wholly  averse  to  writing  verse,  I  trust  it  will  not 
prove  that  I  am  perverse,  and  that  my  effort  is  not  entirely  a  re- 
verse. If  I  can  have  your  attention  for  seventy  lines  only,  I  shall 
be  content. 

PLYMOUTH  ROCK  — 1620  — 1870. 

Strike  up  the  good  old  song  once  more,  upon  the  good  old  day ; 

The  good  old  blood  has  reason  yet  the  good  old  words  to  say : 

They've  pressed  us  hard,  these  modern  men,  and  blustered  loud  and 

long, 
To  drown  the  ancient  echoes  of  that  good  old  Pilgrim  song. 
Now  since  the  Lord  has  sent  again  the  year  of  Jubilee, 
Here  comes  our  challenge,  scoffers,  to  ring  from  sea  to  sea : 
There's  nothing  this  new  world  can  show  to  beat  the  good  old  stock, 
The  vine  the  Fathers  planted  this  day  on  Plymouth  Rock ! 

You  boys  of  rail  and  telegraph,  say,  whence  did  you  derive 

Your  energy  to  trample,  your  genius  to  contrive? 

Could  you  have  borne  an  ocean  voyage  as  patiently  as  they, 

From  August  to  December,  with  sermons  twice  a  day  ? 

Your  wonderful  inventions,  — say,  have  you  got  the  skill 

To  make  the  Mayflower  furniture,  that  multiplies  at  will,  — 

The  Edward  Winslow  tables,  the  William  Bradford  clock. 

The  Richard  Warren  high-backed  chairs,  all  dumped  on  Plymouth  Rock  ? 

You're  great  on  Agriculture ;  it's  arduous  work  to  till 

Those  broad,  fat  river  bottoms,  on  which  you  sit  so  still. 

A  stubborn  land,  a  stormy  sea,  they  fought  with  spade  and  rod, 

And  found  the  chief  productions  were  granite  and  salt  cod. 

Your  population's  spreading ;  with  them  was  it  begun, 

One  child  born  on  the  ocean,  and  in  the  harbor  one. 

And  never  did  the  Lord  vouchsafe  his  increase  to  bis  flock 

Richer  than  to  the  five-score  souls  that  stepped  on  Plymouth  Rock. 


THE    DINNER.  129 

Your  boasted  institutions,  youi"  colleges  and  schools 

To  teach  the  whole  world  every  thing,  yet  leave  us  still  some  fools ; 

Your  companies  that  turn  to  stock  all  things  beneath  the  sun, 

And  read  our  Nation's  motto,  "  The  many  lost  in  one  ;  " 

Your  leagues  and  constitutions  spread  like  net-work  oVr  the  land,  — 

Are  feeble  to  the  cords  of  steel  that  bound  the  Pilgrim  band. 

And  in  itself  one  compact  doth  all  their  treasures  lock, 

Signed  in  the  "  JNIaytiower's  "  cabin,  and  sealed  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

That  liberty  you  proudly  claim  of  action  and  of  thought 
Was  all  across  the  ocean  by  Scrooby's  Pilgrims  brought ; 
A  harder  need  compelled  them  to  leave  a  peaceful  home ; 
They  found  a  fiercer  savage  within  these  forests  roam. 
So  in  your  honest  triumph  beware  how  ye  withhold 
Due  honor  from  your  Fathers,  the  mighty  men  of  old. 
At  home  they  met  unflinching  the  cell,  the  scourge,  the  block. 
And  here  the  land's  foundations  laid  firm  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

We  know  the  fun  you  love  so  well  at  Puritans  to  poke. 
Your  witches  and  your  Quakers  and  every  threadbare  joke. 
Go  read  your  history,  school-boys  ;  learn  on  one  glorious  page 
The  Pilgrim  towers  untainted  above  that  iron  age. 
From  stains  of  mightiest  heroes  the  Pilgrims'  hands  are  clean, 
In  Plymouth's  free  and  peaceful  streets  no  bigot's  stake  was  seen ; 
The  sons  of  other  saints  may  wince  and  pale  beneath  your  mock, 
Harmless  the  fool-born  jesting  flows  back  from  Plymouth  Rock. 

Nay,  let  the  strain  soar  higher ;  still  louder  swell  the  song ; 

Claim  all  the  starry  honors  that  to  our  sires  belong ; 

Two  hundred  years  and  fifty,  brothers,  this  day  have  flown. 

Since  first  from  out  the  godless  world  our  Fathers  came  alone. 

Then  France  was  flown  with  glory,  and  Spain  was  swol'n  with  pride, 

And  England  rested  in  her  might,  and  Rome  the  world  defied : 

The  scoff  of  sword  and  sceptre,  of  mitre  and  of  frock. 

The  seed  of  God  in  tears  was  sown  this  day  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

One-fourth  of  time's  great  cycle  hath  o'er  the  ages  passed. 
And  the  stroke  of  God's  great  vengeance  the  guilty  finds  at  last. 
Helpless  the  Roman  tyrant  is  shaking  on  his  hill. 
And  Spain  before  a  stranger  boy  must  bend  her  haughty  will ! 
The  plains  of  France  are  trampled  in  gore  by  steel-hoofed  foes. 
And  England  hears  a  warning  in  every  breeze  that  blows  ; 
At  all  the  godless  tiiresholds  Death's  equal  footsteps  knock. 
But  peace  and  joy  and  safety  are  ours  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

17 


130  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

The  storm  of  God's  destruction  is  sweeping  o'er  the  skies, 

The  rains  in  wrath  are  falling,  tlie  Hoods  in  anger  rise ; 

Woe  to  the  men  who  on  the  race  lie  loves  have  laid  their  hand. 

And  woe  to  all  the  foolish  ones  who  build  upon  the  sand. 

Let  torrents  fall  and  billows  swell,  and  winds  their  fury  spend : 

Our  Fathers'  God  from  every  ill  their  children  shall  tlefend. 

No  cloud  can  dim  our  nation's  sun,  no  stroke  our  dwelling  shock, 

By  great  Jehovah  foundetl  this  day  on  Plymouth  Rock. 

The  President.  —  I  have  received  by  telegraph  the  fol- 
lowing toast  from  the  New  England  Society  of  St.  Louis  :  — 
Plymouth  Rock:  The  foundation-stone  of  Western  civilization. 

In  response  to  which,  I  will  propose  — 

The  Great  West:  The  cap-stone  of  the  monument  which  shall  stand  in 
everlasting  memory  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England. 

The  President,  —  The  next  toast  which  I  will  propose 

is  as  follows  :  — 

The  Compact  of  the  Mai/Jloiver  :^'^  The  first  written  constitution  the  world 
ever  saw,  the  foundation-stone  of  free  governments,  "  the  first  effectual 
counterijoise  in  the  scale  of  human  rights." 

The  President  called  on  Hon.  Henry  Wilson  to  re- 
spond, who  was  heartily  greeted. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.  HENRY  WILSON. 

These  flying  moments  admonish  me  that  I  must  make  but  a  brief 
response  to  the  sentiment  just  given  by  the  chair,  and  so  kindly 
received.  The  Orator  of  the  Day,  in  the  magnificent  address  to, 
which  we  have  listened  with  high  gratification,  —  an  address  which 
honors  him  alike  as  a  scholar,  as  an  orator,  as  a  statesman,  wnd  as 
a  Christian,  —  has  told  us  that  it  was  the  Christian  faith  that 
brought  the  Pilgrims,  who  stepjied  on  Plymouth  Rock  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago  this  day,  to  the  Western  world.  While  I  agree 
in  the  sentiment  that  it  was  piety,  pure  and  simple  faith  in  God  and 
in  his  Son,  that  brought  those  brave  men  across  the  waves,  I  cannot 
forget  —  we  should  all  gratefully  remember  ou  this  day  —  that 
they  laid  in  the  cabin  of  the  ''  Mayflower  "  the  foundations  of  civil 
liberty  in  America.     Bancroft,  in  his  history,  tells  us  that  in  the 


THE    DINNER.  131 

cabin  of  tlie  '*  Mayilower "  Immanity  recovered  its  rights ;  that 
government  was  then  touuded  by  tlieni  on  the  basis  of  equal  law  for 
the  general  good.  That  compact  proclaimed  that,  for  the  glory  of 
God,  the  advancenaent  of  the  Ciiristian  faith,  the  honor  of  country, 
the  general  good,  there  should  be  just  and  equal  laws.  These 
grand  doctrines  of  the  Pilgrims,  then  embodied  in  a  compact  of 
government,  have  been  inspirations  and  examples  in  all  the  succeed- 
ing generations.  From  the  day  that  compact  was  signed  to  the 
time  in  which  we  live,  there  has  been  a  struggle  here  in  the 
Western  world  to  establish  and  maintain  just  and  equal  laws  for 
the  general  good.  The  example  of  the  Pilgrims  has  inspired  the 
faith  and  strengthened  the  arras  of  those  who  have  battled  in  legis- 
lative halls  and  on  bloody  fields.  It  inspired  the  colonies  in  their 
struggle  for  more  than  a  century  against  the  aggressive  policy  of 
England.  It  inspired  the  burning  eloquence  of  James  Otis,  and  the 
pen  of  the  organizer  of  the  American  Revolution,  that  grand  old 
Puritan,  Samuel  Adams.  It  inspired  the  majestic  eloquence  of 
Daniel  Webster,  when  he  stood  here  half  a  century  ago,  and  de- 
nounced the  slave-trade  as  the  crime  of  his  century.  It  inspired 
John  Quincy  Adams  in  his  grand  struggle,  in  the  hall  of  Congress, 
to  maintain  the  sacred  right  of  petition ;  and  the  martyred  Lovejoy 
to  vindicate,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  the  freedom  of  the 
press.  It  inspired  William  Lloyd  Garrison  when  he  proclaimed 
immediate  emancipation  and  his  firm  resolve  to  be  heard  by  the 
American  people.  It  inspired  Abraham  Lincoln  in  his  immortal 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  which  smote  the  fetters  from  the 
limbs  of  three  and  a  half  millions  of  men.  It  inspired  brave  men 
among  the  living  and  the  dead,  in  minorities  and  in  majorities,  in 
the  long  struggle  which  incorporated  into  the  Constitution  the 
thirteenth  amendment,  that  made  it  impossible  that  a  slave  should 
tread  the  soil  of  the  Republic  ;  the  fourteenth  amendment,  that 
defined  the  rights  of  American  citizenship  ;  and  the  fifteenth  amend- 
ment, that  gave  every  male  citizen  the  right  to  vote,  and  practically 
the  right  to  be  voted  for.  This  grand  compact  of  government  on 
board  the  '"  Mayflower,"  adopted  before  the  men  who  made  it  had 
trod  the  soil  of  the  continent,  will  inspire  their  descendants  and  brave 
men  in  the  advancing  future  to  hope  on  and  struggle  on  to  make 
equal  and  just  laws  for  the  general  good,  the  vital,  animating,  and 
living  spirit  of  American  institutions,  so  long  as  the  memory  of  the 
Pilsrrims  shall  live  in  the  Western  world. 


132  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

The  President.  —  The  next  sentiment  which  I  proposed 
to  offer  was  to  be  responded  to  by  a  gentleman  who  is  neces- 
sarily absent.  I  cannot  forbear,  however,  giving  the  toast 
in  honor  of  our  absent  guest,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
Esq., — 

The  great  Captains  of  Freedom,  who  gracefully  surrendered  their  commis- 
sions when  tlie  victory  was  won. 

I  have  a  letter,  received  to  day  from  Mr.  Garrison,  in  which 

he  expresses  regret  at  not  being  able  to  be  present,  and  adds 

in  a  postscript :   "  If  I  were  present  at  your  commemorative 

dinner,  I  could  oifer  no  sentiment  more  in  accordance  with 

my  own  mind,  or  more  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  than  is 

contained  in  the  following  lines  by  Lowell :  — 

"  '  New  occasions  teach  new  duties  ;  time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth ; 
They  must  upward  still  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth. 
Lo  !  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires  !  we  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be  ; 
Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  winter  sea, 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key.'  " 

The  President.  —  The  next  sentiment  which  I  have  to 
propose  is  as  follows  :  — 

The  past  Orators  of  this  Anniversary :  They  have  added  lustre  to  a  day 
already  famous  in  tfae  annals  of  our  history. 

I  introduce  to  you  the  Hon.  George  S.  Hillard,  of 
Boston. 

SPEECH  OF  HON.   GEORGE    S.  HILLARD. 

In  asking  me  to  speak  to  this  toast,  you  set  rae  a  task  embarrass- 
ing from  the  very  wealth  of  matter  which  the  theme  presents.  The 
first  and  the  second  and  the  third  virtue  of  an  after-dinner  speech 
is  that  it  shall  be  short ;  and  I  could  not  do  justice  to  the  past 
orators  of  this  occasion  without  speaking  at  such  length  as  to  break 
this  rule,  and  make  you  all  wish  that  I  too  were  a  past  and  not  a 
present  orator. 

The  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  was  not  publicly  noticed  until  long 
after  the  last  survivor  of  them  had  been  gathered  to  his  fathers. 
Like  many  memorable  events  in  history,  its  significance  was  not 


THE    DINNER. 


133 


revealed  to  the  actors.  In  nothing  were  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  more 
admirable  than  in  their  unconsciousness  and  absolute  freedom  from 
self-reference.  Like  Moses  when  he  came  down  from  Mount 
Sinai,  with  the  tablets  of  testimony  in  his  hand,  they  wist  not  that 
their  faces  shone.  It  is  ever  thus  with  spiritual  light.  It  is  a 
glory  not  perceived  by  him  upon  whom  it  rests  ;  and  the  moment 
a  man  knows  that  his  face  shines,  that  moment  the  light  begins  to 
grow  dim. 

The  first  public  celebration  took  place  t>o  late  as  17G9,  and  was 
under  the  auspices  of  a  club  of  Plymouth  gentlemen,  among  whom 
we  see  the  still  familiar  names  of  Watson,  Warren,  Davis,  and 
Russell.  It  was  attended  with  such  expressions  and  marks  of 
honor  as  were  at  command  in  those  days  of  plain  living  and  modest 
means.  A  cannon  was  fired,  a  flag  was  raised,  a  procession  was 
formed,  and  a  "  decent  repast "  was  served,  beginning  with  a  large 
baked  Indian  whortleberry  pudding.  This  was  in  conformity  with 
the  good  old  New  England  usage,  which  was  to  serve  pudding  first. 
Perhaps  this  reversal  of  the  natural  order  of  dinner  was  due  to  the 
reverence  felt  by  our  Fathers  for  the  primitive  language  of  the  Old 
Testament,  since  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  the  beginning  of  the  book  is 
at  the  end  of  the  volume.  In  the  evening  there  was  a  social  gather- 
ing at  the  Old  Colony  Hall,  where  the  President  of  the  club  "  de- 
livered several  appropriate  toasts."  Whether  these  toasts  were 
dry  or  dipped,  we  are  not  informed. 

The  next  year,  1770,  just  a  hundred  years  ago  to-morrow,  the 
day  was  celebrated  in  much  the  same  manner  as  in  the  preceding 
year,  with  the  addition  of  an  address,  which  was  spoken  "  with 
decent  firmness,"  by  Edward  Winslow,  Jr.,  Esq.,  a  member  of  the 
club ;  and,  as  his  discourse  was  not  above  ten  minutes  in  length,  the 
firmness  of  the  hearers  could  not  have  been  severely  tried. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  second  century,  except  during  the 
thirteen  years  between  1780  and  1794,  the  event  was  noticed  by 
either  a  public  or  a  private  celebration,  and  discourses  were  de- 
livered by  men  of  note  ;  among  them  John  Quincy  Adams,  Presi- 
dent Kirkland,  Horace  Holley,  and  Francis  C.Gray,  —  the  last  a 
remarkable  man,  but  who  has  left  little  behind  him  to  show  what 
cause  his  friends  had  to  admire  his  abilities  and  attainments. 

But  you,  Mr.  President,  will  permit  me  to  pause  for  a  moment 
upon  one  name  in  the  list  of  early  orators,  that  of  Judge  Davis, 
your    kinsman,   who  gave   the  discourse   in   1800.      No  man   was 


134  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

better  fitted  to  speak  on*  this  theme  ;  for  no  one  liad  studied  the 
lives  and  labors  of  the  Pilgrims  more  carefully,  and  no  one  felt  for 
them  a  deeper  reverence.  His  was  the  i)ure  and  lofty  spirit  of  the 
Pilgrims,  softened  by  the  influences  of  a  milder  age  and  a  creed 
less  stern.  In  him  were  seen  the  '■'  priscajides,"  the  ancestral  faith 
of  Marcellus,  and  the  '■^ mitis  sapientia"  the  gentle  wisdom  of 
Laelius.  He  was  wise  and  good,  tender  and  true  :  the  calm  of  age 
was  in  his  youth,  and  the  freshness  and  hopefulness  of  youth  were 
in  his  age. 

It  was  under  his  guidance  that  I  first  visited  this  town,  and  saw 
the  spots  hallowed  by  the  footstei)s  of  the  Pilgrims,  not  darkened 
by  the  frown  of  winter,  but  touched  with  the  soft  lights  of  departing 
summer.     We  were,  as  Wordsworth  says,  — 

"  A  pair  of  friends,  tliough  I  was  young 
And  Matthew  seventy-two." 

He  saw  in  me  the  friend  and  companion  of  his  beloved  grandson, 
William  Watson  Sturgis,  a  youth  of  rare  promise,  in  whose  early 
and  sad  death  so  many  fond  hopes  were  shattered.  How  distinctly 
do  the  form  and  presence  of  the  good  old  man  stand  before  me  at 
this  moment !  —  his  venerable  head,  his  benignant  countenance,  his 
low  voice,  which  was  as  incapable  of  loud  or  harsh  tones  as  his 
breast  was  of  harboring  the  passions  that  crave  such  utterance. 

In  1820,  at  the  close  of  the  second  century  of  the  life  of  New 
England,  the  Pilgrim  Society  was  formed ;  and  it  was  determined 
to  celebrate  the  day  in  a  manner  which  should  respond  to  the 
strong  interest  felt  in  the  occasion  by  all  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims. 
In  selecting  Mr.  Webster  as  their  orator,  the  Society  did  but  con- 
firm the  unanimous  choice  of  public  sentiment.  He  was  then  in 
the  pride  and  prime  of  his  magnificent  manhood,  and  had  won  a 
national  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  a  statesman.  In  this  presence 
I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  merits  of  his  admirable  discourse ;  its 
weight  of  matter,  its  strength  and  simplicity  of  style,  its  variety  and 
happy  choice  of  topics,  its  political  wisdom,  its  dignity  of  sentiment, 
and  the  splendid^  eloquence  of  particular  passages.  Nor  need  I  add 
how  much  its  substantial  claims  were  aided  and  enforced  by  the 
speaker's  remarkable  physical  gifts,  —  his  npble  presence,  his  vigor- 
ous action,  and  the  power  of  his  brow,  eye,  and  voice.  In  his  subse- 
quent life,  Mr.  Webster  often  addressed  larger  bodies,  and  spoke  on 
more  exciting  topics,  but  never  did  he  produce  a  greater  effect  than 


THE    DINNER.  135 

he  did  upon  the  select  and  sympathetic  audience  which  then  and 
there  hung  upon  his  Hps. 

In  1824  the  lot  fell  upon  him  who  was  then  the  choicest  flower 
of  New  England  scholarship,  and  the  other  hope  —  spes  altera  — 
of  New  England  demonstrative  eloquence,  Mr.  Everett,  at  that 
time  Professor  of  Greek  Literature  in  Harvard  College.  My 
young  friends  around  me,  who  saw  Mr.  Everett  in  his  latter  years, 
when  a  certain  pensive  gravity  hung  over  his  manner  and  expres- 
sion, can  hardly  imagine  what  he  was  in  tho>e  days,  before  he  had 
left  the  primrose  path  of  letters  for  the  steep  and  thorny  way  of 
politics  ;  when  the  winds  of  morning  were  blowing  round  him,  when 
youth  was  on  the  prow  and  the  enchantress  Hope  at  the  helm.  He 
was  full  of  radiant  life,  and  overflowing,  graceful  power.  His  Ply- 
mouth discourse  is  a  beautiful  and  finished  expression  of  his  rare 
gifts  and  accomplishments,  with  striking  views  and  brilliant  pictures, 
the  style  rich  and  animated,  and  the  whole  glowing  with  a  certain 
vernal  flush  of  color  in  harmony  with  the  speaker's  youthful  aspect 
and  exquisite  elocution.  To  the  hearers,  it  was  the  unfolding  of  a 
web  of  Tyrian  dye,  and  we  who  read  it  will  see  that  the  staple  is 
good  and  the  texture  firm. 

I  am  not  going  to  compare  these  two  discourses,  still  less  the 
two  men.  Either  would  be  an  ungracious  office.  It  would  be  un- 
seemly in  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  to  dispute  which  is  the 
more  precious  gift  of  Heaven,  the  granite  of  the  former  or  the 
marble  of  the  latter.     Let  us  be  thankful  for  both. 

But  let  me  for  a  moment  note  a  feature  of  resemblance  in  the  two 
discourses.  Both  speakers  look  at  their  subject  from  what  may  be 
called  a  secular  and  historical  point  of  view.  To  them  the  Pilgrims 
are  chiefly  interesting  as,  to  use  the  language  of  Governor  Hutchin- 
son, "  the  founders  of  a  flourishing  town  and  colony,  if  not  of  the 
whole  British  colony  in  North  America."  I  think  we  can  see  in 
both  speakers  a  feeling  that  the  wonderful  growth  of  the  country 
was  due,  so  far  as  it  was  due  to  purely  moral  causes,  not  so  much 
to  any  distinctive  traits  in  the  faith  and  lives  of  the  Pilgrims, 
making  them  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  England  and  offenders 
against  the  law  of  England,  as  to  the  fact  that  they  were  English- 
men. Exiles  as  they  were,  they  brought  with  them  from  England 
the  speech  and  the  institutions  of  the  land  from  whose  step-motlier 
frown  and  malediction  they  had  fled. 

A  brilliant  French  writer,  whose  recent  unhappy  death  our  coun- 


136  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

try  and  his  own  yet  lament,  speaking  of  the  progress  of  an  Enghsh 
settlement  in  Australia,  said  that  if  it  had  been  colonized  By  French- 
men they  would  liave  there  only  a  camp,  a  cafe,  a  theatre,  and  a 
prison.  Our  Fathers  brought  with  them  from  England  two  priceless 
possessions, — the  Common  Law  and  King  James's  Bible:  the 
former  a  vital  organism,  not  of  symmetrical  form  and  graceful  out- 
line, but  full  of  the  vigorous  sap  of  liberty,  and  drawing  its  growth 
from  the  soil  of  the  popular  heart ;  the  latter,  apart  from  its  tran- 
scendent claims  as  a  revelation  of  God  to  man,  in  a  purely  intel- 
lectual aspect  the  most  precious  treasure  that  any  modern  nation 
enjoys,  preserving  as  it  does  our  noble  language  at  its  best  point  of 
growth,  just  between  antique  ruggeduess  and  modern  refinement, 
embalming  immortal  truths  in  words  simple,  strong,  and  sweet,  that 
charm  the  child  at  the  mother's  knee,  that  nerve  and  calm  the 
soldier  in  the  dread  half  hour  before  the  shock  of  battle,  that  com- 
fort and  sustain  the  soul  that  is  entering  upon  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death  !  Infinite  has  been  the  value  of  the  Bible  in 
training  and  forming  the  mind  of  New  England,  and  through  it  that 
of  the  whole  country. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  think  it  unwise  to  foster  ill-will  between 
England  and  America  ;  and  good-will  between  nations,  as  between 
individuals,  is  maintained  by  being  kind  to  one  another's  virtues, 
and  a  little  blind  to  one  another's  faults.  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  used 
to  bless  the  memory  of  Louis  XIV.,  because  his  grandfather,  by 
reason  of  that  monarch's  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  had  fled 
to  England,  and  thus  he  himself  had  been  born  an  Englishman  and 
not  a  Frenchman  ;  and  standing  on  the  rock  of  Plymouth,  I  confess 
that  I  feel  somewhat  grateful  to  Archbishop  Laud  and  the  Judges 
of  the  Star  Chamber,  because  to  them  we  owe  it  that  New  England 
was  settled  by  Englishmen  ;  and  thus  the  progress  of  our  country  is 
traced  not  by  the  camp,  the  cafe,  the  theatre,  and  the  prison,  but 
by  the  meeting-house,  the  school-house,  the  court-house,  and  the 
ballot-box,  all  the  legitimate  fruits  of  the  Bible  and  the  Common 
Law. 

The  President. — I  take  this  fitting  opportunity,  after 
the  allusion  by  my  friend  Mr.  Hillard  to  the  Orator  of  1820, 
to  state  that  since  I  took  the  chair  I  have  received,  as  a 
present  to  the  Pilgrim   Society,  from  Francis   Russell  Stod- 


THE    DINNER.  137 

dard,  Esq.,  the  original  letter  (which  I  hold  in  my  hand) 
of  Hon.  Daniel  Webster,  accepting  the  invitation  of  the 
Trustees  of  that  Society  to  deliver  his  great  oration. 

It  bears  date  Boston,  July  8,  1820,  and  its  text  is  as 
follows :  — 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  sensible  of  the  respect  shown  me  by  the 
Trustees  of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  in  requesting  me  to  deliver  an 
address  before  them  in  December  next.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  com- 
ply with  their  wishes,  although  I  cannot  but  know  how  many  others 
there  are  better  able  than  myself  to  make  a  performance  which 
should  be  worthy  of  the  Society  and  of  the  occasion. 
With  great  regard,  your  obedient  servant, 

Daniel  Webster. 

The  PiiESiDENT.  —  Mrs.  Hemans's  hymn  beginning, — 
"  The  breaking  waves  dashed  high,"  — 
will  now  be  sung  by  Samuel  B.  Noyes,  Esq.,  of  Canton. 

The  hymn  was  sung  with  fine  effect,  Gilinore's  band 
playing  an  accompaniment ;  and  Mr.  Noyes  was  warmly 
applauded. 

The  Pkesident.  —  I  will  propose  as  the  next  senti- 
ment— 

The  Interests  of  Learning :  Always  recognized  by  our  Fatliers  as  a  prime 
necessity  of  the  State. 

I  will  introduce  to  you  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford, 
President  of  the  Board  of  Overseers  of  Harvard  College. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.   JOHN   H.    CLIFFORD. 

3f}'.  President^  —  When  I  received  your  very  kind  note  in- 
forming me  that  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  College  had  been  com- 
pelled by  the  pressure  of  his  official  duties  to  decline  your  invitation 
to  these  festivities,  and  requesting,  if  it  were  agreeable  to  me,  that 
I  would  respond  to  the  sentiment  you  have  just  read,  I  felt  that  a 
compliance  with  your  wishes  involved  a  twofold  cause  of  regret, 
both  to  the  company  and  to  myself 

In  any  thing  having  reference  to  "  Harvard  College/'  or  to  "  the 
interests  of  learning,"  I  know  too  well  how  much  we  have  lost  in 

18 


138  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

not  hiiviiig  President  Eliot  hiinsolf  to  answer  in  their  behalf,  —  one 
who  represents  so  admirably  the  latest  fruits  of  that  spirit,  so  honor- 
able to  our  Fathers,  which  has  blazoned  the  whole  of  our  history 
with  the  evidence  of  their  supreme  regard  for  the  great  cause  of 
popular  education. 

He  could  have  told  us,  without  exaggeration,  that  the  ancient 
University,  his  recent  accession  to  the  government  and  guardianship 
of  which  has  given  such  inspiration  to  the  confidence  of  its  friends, 
is  at  least  justifying  the  fond  expectations  of  the  Fathers,  Pilgrim 
and  Puritan  alike,  who  founded  it  as  one  of  the  chief  and  favored 
objects  of  their  highest  hopes  and  aspirations.  He  could  have  said, 
I  think  with  truth,  that  its  present  condition  and  prospects  would 
have  satisfied  any  one  of  those  Pilgrims  whom  my  eloquent  friend, 
the  Orator  of  the  Day,  in  his  masterly  and  unsurpassed  portraiture 
of  them,  to  which  we  have  just  listened  so  delightedly,  introduced 
to  us  as  revisiting  the  scenes  of  their  earthly  pilgrimage,  and  in- 
quiring what  had  been  the  changes  and  what  the  advances  since 
they  passed  to  a  higher  sphere  ;  —  and  would  have  prompted  him  to 
confess  that  "  the  great  promise  and  hope  we  made  and  cherished, 
so  far  as  the  College  was  concerned,  has  at  least  been  kept  and  real- 
ized." 

"Why,  sir,  in  their  day,  to  quote  the  words  of  one  who  has  been 
facetiously  called  the  poet  "  of  all  of  our  Homes"  but  whom  I  re- 
gai'd  as  eminently  entitled,  by  his  immortal  tributes  to  their  mem- 
ory, to  be  called  the  Poet  of  the  Pilgrims,  — 

"  Why,  wlio  was  in  the  college,  when  college  first  begun  ? 
Two  nephews  of  the  President,  and  a  Professor's  son ! 
They  turned  a  ' little  Injun'  by  as  brown  as  any  bun, 
Lord,  how  the  Seniors  knocked  about  that  Fresliman  class  of  one !  " 

A  Freshman  class  of  one.  Mi".  President !  while  of  the  ingenuous 
youth  who  throng  there  to-day,  —  "  the  rose  and  expectancy  of  the 
fair  State,"  —  the  members  of  classes  are  numbered  by  hundreds,  and 
the  cuiTiculum  that  is  open  to  them  under  the  guidance  of  faithful 
and  thoroughly  accomplished  teachers  surpasses  in  comprehensive- 
-ness  and  completeness  more  than  all  the  learning  of  which  Brewster, 
the  great  scholar  of  the  Pilgrim  band,  ever  dreamed,  —  more  than 
Christ  Church  or  Baliol,  more  than  all  the  great  Universities  of 
England  or  the  Continent,  with  their  proudest  scholarship,  could  in 
their  day  have  compassed  or  compi'ehended.    Does  not  such  a  reply 


THE    DINNER.  139 

as  this,  which  tlie  President  of  Harvard  College  could  have  made 
to  your  toast,  iu  language  such  as  would  have  made  my  ina<le([uate 
statement  of  the  contrast  seem  poor  and  meagre,  furnish  us  with  a 
satisfactory  assurance  that  the  education  of  their  people,  which  the 
early  Fathers  declared  must  be  "  the  saving  hope  of  tliH  Colony,"  has 
been  through  all  our  history  steadfastly  maintained  and  fostered? 

Having  thus  discharged ^the  vicarious  duty  you  iin|)osed  upon  me, 
Mr.  President,  to  the  honor  of  which  I  had  no  other  title  than  my 
olilcial  connection  with  the  government  of  the  College,  so  generously 
conferred  upon  me  by  its  sons, —  a  connection  I  can  never  fail  at 
any  time  or  anywhere  gratefully  to  appreciate  and  acknowledge,  — 
I  venture  to  claim  a  moment  more,  to  say  a  word  upon  a  kindred 
topic,  which  but  for  your  suggestion  and  my  own  sense  of  loyalty  to 
you  and  to  the  occasion,  in  regarding  your  request  as  a  command,  I 
had  intended  to  speak. 

The  early  records  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth  tell  us  —  and 
it  is  a  proud  evidence  of  the  interest  of  the  Fathers  in  good  learn- 
ing and  popular  education  —  that  the  proceeds  of  what  was  to  them 
a  valuable  herring  fishery  at  Cape  Cod  were  constituted  a  fund  for 
the  support  of  a  free  school  in  the  Colony.  This  fact,  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  early  establishment  of  the  College,  —  a  period  so 
early  that  it  would  not  have  been  strange  if  the  supply  of  their 
pressing  material  wants  had  engrossed  all  their  thoughts  and  tasked 
all  their  efforts,  — ''  to  the  end,"  as  they  declared,  "  that  good  learn- 
ing may  not  die  out  amongst  us,"  has  suggested  to  me  a  sort  of 
theory,  it  may  be  a  fl^nciful  one,  that  there  is  some  subtle  and  mys- 
terious connection  between  Education  and  the  Fisheries.  And  as 
"  the  Fisheries  "  are  to-day  the  great  topic  of  national  interest,  ay, 
of  more  interest  than  a  thousand  ''  Alabamas ; "  and  as  we  here  in 
Massachusetts  mean  to  support  our  patriotic  President,  who  has  just 
honored  us  by  sending  a  telegraphic  toast  to  our  table,  when  he 
stands  up  as  resolutely  as  he  has  done  in  his  recent  annual  mes- 
sage for  the  rights  of  our  New  England  fishermen,  — you  will 
pardon  me  a  further  illustration  or  two  of  the  analogy  I  have  sug- 
gested between  these  great  interests  of  the  old  Colony  and  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  My  excellent  and  eloquent  friend,  Mr.  Hillard,  has 
just  told  us  that  he  "  is  one  of  those  who  think  it  unwise  to  foster 
ill-will  between  England  and  America."  I  agree  with  him  fully,  sir. 
But  at  the  same  time  I  must  declare  that  I  am  one  of  those  who 
deem  it  eminently  wise  to  require  something  like  equal  and  exact 


140  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

justice  from  England ;  and  I  venture  to  say  that  education  will 
begin  to  lose  its  value  among  us  when  we  shall  sul)mit  to  any 
restriction  upon  that  great  interest  of  New  England,  hy  the  fruits 
of  w^hich  it  has  been  sustained  and  cherished.  Wiiy,  sir,  what  has 
the  connection  between  tliem  been  throughout  our  whole  Colonial, 
Provincial,  and  National  history?     Let  me  trace  its  outline. 

Our  friend,  Professor  Agassiz,  whom  Harvard  College,  among  the 
great  benefits  she  has  conferred  upon  the  country,  enticed  from  his 
European  home  to  become  an  American  citizen,  and  bestow  upon 
us  the  unrivalled  fruits  of  his  boundless  scientific  researches  and  ac- 
complishments, maintains  that  there  is  some  pathological  or  psycho- 
logical relation  between  the  human  brain  and  the  fishes  of  the  sea, 
—  that  in  the  phosphorus  of  the  finny  tribes  are  to  be  found  the 
peculiar  pabulum  and  nutriment  of  the  brain  which  make  bright, 
thinking  men.  Our  Fathers,  sir,  though  they  may  have  been  igno- 
rant of  the  Professor's  scientific  theory,  never  failed  to  manifest  their 
high  appreciation  of  the  value  of  these  "  denizens  of  the  deep." 
While  it  is  an  undisputed  fact  of  history  that  the  only  motive  which 
led  the  Pilgrims  of  New  Plymouth  across  the  ocean  was  to  secure 
the  enjoyment  of  "  freedom  to  worship  God,"  you  know,  sir,  it  has 
been  claimed  by  some  irreverent  commentators  in  reference  to  the 
Puritans  of  Massachusetts,  that  the  chief  object  of  their  colonizing 
adventure  was  "  to  fish  and  trade."  The  facetious  lines  attributed 
to  one  of  the  early  divines,  w^io,  upon  a-  certain  occasion  familiar  to 
all  students  of  colonial  history,  made  an  enforced  excursion  down 
Massachusetts  Bay,  celebrate  as  among  the  great  providential  gifts 
to  the  Colony  our  deep  sea  fisheries  :  — 

"  That  glorious  Bay, 
In  which  —  those  wonders  of  the  deep  — 
The  mackerel  swim,  and  porpoise  play, 
And  crabs  and  lobsters  creep. 
Fish  of  all  kinds  inhabit  there. 
And  swarm  the  dark  abode ; 
Here  halibut  and  haddock  are. 
And  eels,  and  perch,  and  cod." 

And  who  of  us,  whose  great  privilege  it  has  been  to  assist  at  these 
pious  and  festive  commemorations  of  the  Fathers  on  this  conse- 
crated spot  in  former  years,  can  forget  the  saint-like  aspect,  the* 
serene  presence,  and  the  mellifluous  voice  of  another  divine  of  a 
later   age,    the    worthy    successor    of   John    Robinson    and    Elder 


THE    DINNER.  141 

Brewster,  tlie  Reverend  Dr.  Kendall,  who  always  on  these  occa- 
sions, in  his  fervent  thanksgivings  to  Almighty  God,  gratefully 
recognized  His  good  providence,  '•  through  wliich  our  Pilgrim  an- 
cestors were  fed,  not  with  the  manna  of  the  wilderness,  but  from 
the  abundance  of  the  sea  and  the  treasures  hid  in  the  sand."  ^^ 

Why,  Mr.  President,  what  have  we  done  in  Massachusetts  since 
the  Province  Charter  united  the  two  Colonies  under  one  jurisdiction, 
but  to  hang  up  as  our  legislative  emblem,  in  the  dome  of  the 
Representatives'  Hall,  that  marvellous  Cod,  whose  vigilant  and 
unwinking  eye  keeps  watch  over  our  legislators,  to  see  that, 
when  they  rise  upon  its  floor,  "  the  tongues  and  sounds "  which 
reach  his  ear  shall  never  fail  in  a  patriotic  advocacy  of  the  great 
interests  of  Education  and  the  Fisheries  ?  It  is  doubtless  to 
his  inspiration  and  influence  that  we  are  indebted  for  all  the 
voluminous  legislation  which  has  been  embodied  in  so  many 
"  Acts  in  addition  to  the  Acts  entitled  the  Acts  for  the  Protection  of 
Alewives  in  Taunton  Great  River,"  —  and  for  the  more  recent  cre- 
ation of  a  Commission  to  restore  to  their  old  haunts,  in  our  inland 
streams  and  rivers,  the  trout,  the  bass,  the  salmon,  and  the  shad,  so 
ruthlessly  driven  from  them  by  the  improvidence  which,  in  stimu- 
lating our  manufacturing  enterprises,  had  sacrificed  the  generous 
bounty  of  nature  to  the  insatiate  greed  of  man.  To  the  same 
source,  possibly,  we  may  attribute  the  honorable  distinction  of  my 
townsmen  of  New  Bedford,  tlie  hardy  and  adventurous  fishermen, 
who  by  the  banks  of  Buzzard's  Bay  "  sit  on  a  rock  and  bob  for 
whale,"  in  having  established  the  first  Free  Public  Library  in  the 
Commonwealth,  as  a  municipal  institution,  supported  by  the  volun- 
tary taxation  of  the  people. 

Thus  we  see  how  Education  and  the  Fisheries  have  gone  on  as 
mutual  supports  of  each  other  through  all  our  history  :  the  one,  from 
the  earliest  humble  free  school  of  the  Colony  to  the  eldest  and 
most  distinguished  University  of  the  country  ;  and  the  other,  in  the 
language  of  old  Cowley,  "from  minnows,  to  those  living  islands, 
whales." 

No  less  conspicuous,  Mr.  President,  if  you  will  permit  me  to  pur- 
sue the  analogy  one  step  farther,  has  been  the  political  importance 
of  the  Fisheries  to  all  the  highest  interests  of  the  country.  Who 
that  is  familiar  with  our  history  can  Ibrget  the  stress  that  was  laid 
upon  their  maintenance,  and  their  preservation  from  foi-eign  en- 
croachment, by  the  great  "  Colossus  of  Independence,"  John  Adams, 


142  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

at  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  —  or  liow  his  illustrious 
son  and  successor,  John  Quincy  Adams,  as  one  of  the  Commission- 
ers at  Ghent,  enforced  their  claims  to  international  recognition  and 
observance  after  the  last  conflict  of  arms  between  the  two  nations  in 
the  War  of  1812?  And  here  certainly,  on  this  spot  and  on  this 
day  of  commemoration,  I  should  scarcely  be  justified  in  not  refer- 
ring to  a  period  earlier  than  either  of  these,  when  a  gallant  son  of 
our  own  Plymouth,  a  lineal  descendant  of  that  Governor  Winslow 
whose  career  has  been  so  fitly  and  beautifully  sketched  by  the  Orator 
of  the  Day,  led  the  brave  sons  of  the  Colony  to  the  field,  among  the 
first  of  that  series  of  momentous  conflicts  between  the  mother  coun- 
try and  her  ancient  foe,  for  possession  of  the  military  posts  with 
which  the  latter  had  dotted  the  continent  from  the  St.  Johns  to  the 
Mississippi, — conflicts  that  had  their  origin  in  the  value  which 
both  powers  attached  to  the  Fisheries,  and  which  resulted  in  settling 
the  question  whether  Protestant  England  or  Catholic  France  was 
to  be  the  dominating  power  in  the  Colonies  of  North  America.^^  It 
is  not,  I  think,  too  much  to  say,  that  it  was  to  these  colonists  of 
New  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay  that  Great  Britain  owed  all 
her  power  to  set  up  any  rights  whatever  to  these  Fisheries,  in  her 
assertion  of  which  she  has  treated  their  descendants,  the  present 
hardy  fishermen  of  New  England,  with  so  harsh  and  ungenerous  a 
policy. 

Let  us  hope,  Mr.  President,  that  fair  and  just  diplomacy,  under 
the  guidance  of  President  Grant,  who  as  a  successful  and  illustri- 
ous soldier  knows  how  to  value  the  blessings  of  Peace,  and  his  able 
and  accomplished  Secretary  of  State,  whose  name  of  itself  ought  to 
be  a  guarantee  of  success  in  maintaining  the  rights  of  our  Fish-ermen, 
will  soon  bring  this  vexed  and  vexatious  question  to  a  peaceful, 
honorable,  and  satisfactory  solution.  At  all  events,  and  in  any 
event,  let  it  be  understood  at  Washington  and  in  Downing  Street,  as 
it  is  in  New  England,  that  we  are  never  to  surrender,  upon  any 
foreign  claim  or  through  any  foreign  interference,  any  part  of  this 
great  interest,  the  first-fruits  of  which  were  devoted  by  our  Fathers 
to  the  support  of  free  schools  and  the  education  of  the  whole 
people. 

Let  me  close,  sir,  with  the  lines  of  the  same  "  sweet  singer," 
whom  I  have  already  quoted  as  "  the  Poet  of  the  Pilgrims."  His 
words  are  familiar  to  us  all :  — 


THE    DINNER.  143 

"  God  bless  those  ancient  Puritans, 

Their  lot  was  hard  enough. 
But  honest  hearts  make  iron  arms, 

And  tender  maids  are  tougli. 
So  Love  and  Faith  have  formed  and  fed 

Our  true-born  Yankee  stuff, 
And  we'll  keep  the  kernel  in  the  shell, 

The  British  found  so  rough." 

The  President.  —  I  wish  to  say  here  —  both  by  way  of 
an  apology  to  those  gentlemen  who  have  not  yet  spoken,  to 
which  I  trust  those  whom  you  have  already  had  the  pleasure 
of  hearing  will  close  their  ears,  and  a  gentle  reminder  to  the 
audience  —  that  I  have  had  too  much  to  do  with  political  meet- 
ings heretofore  to  put  forward  all  my  best  speakers  in  the  early 
part  of  the  evening.  We  have  an  abundance  of  eloquent 
gentlemen  in  reserve.  I  have  received  by  telegraph,  from 
the  New  England  Society  of  New  York,  the  following  :  — 

The  New  England  Society  in  the  City  of  New  York   to   the  Pilgrim   Society 
at  Plymouth,   Greeting : 

"We  have  redeemed  the  original  purpose  of  the  passengers  of  the 
"Mayflower"  to  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  and  hope  to 
make  up  for  lost  time,  and  the  treachery  which  led  them  astray. 
We  have  reclaimed  a  fair  portion  of  this  wilderness,  and  hope  in 
another  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  to  win  back  the  whole. 

J.  H.  Choate, 

President  of  the  New  England  Society  in  New  Yoi'k. 

The  President. —  I  propose  in  response, — 

The  Sons  of  Neio  England  in  Neiv  York :  Whatever  they  have  reclaimed 
is  due  to  the  principles  which  they  have  carried  %vlth  them  from  the  churches 
and  schools  and  homes  of  New  England  ;  whatever  they  may  hereafter  win 
will  be  due  to  the  fidelity  with  which  these  principles  are  maintained  and 
perpetuated. 

The  President.  —  I  will  give  you  as  the  next  toast, — 

The  Character  and  Ideas  of  the  Pilgrims:   The  moulding  forces  of  the  Nation. 

And  introduce  to  you  Rev.  Joseph  P.  Thompson,  D.D., 
of  New  York. 


144  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


SPEECH  OF  REV.  J.   P.   THOMPSON. 

Mr.  President,  Ladles  and  Gentlemen,  —  The  eucouragement  held 
out  in  the  closing  words  of  JMr.  Davis  may  be  acce{)te(l  as  an  as- 
surance that  some  two  or  three  speakers  are  to  come  after  me,  who 
constitute  his  reserve.  For  myself,  I  count  it  a  happy  provision  for 
a  speaker  when  his  audience  cannot  possibly  get  away.  It  is  no  use 
for  you  to  try  to  play  the  Pilgrim  just  now  to  the  extent  of  becoming 
separatists  ;  for  if  you  should  get  out  of  tJiis  "  Establishment,"  where 
in  the  world  would  you  go  to  ?  You  cannot  possibly  start  till  the 
train  is  ready,  and  the  train  will  not  leave  till  you  have  heard  those 
admirable  speakers  who  are  to  follow  me. 

'What  a  wonderful  day  this  has  been  !  Rich-  beyond  expression 
are  the  treasures  that  we  shall  carry  away  with  us.  If  we  came  here 
to  be  instructed,  those  of  us  who  thought  ourselves  most  familiar  with 
this  story,  those  of  us  who  have  told  it  over  and  over  again,  have  yet 
learned  something  new  from  the  beautiful  setting  in  which  it  was 
presented  to  us  in  the  church  to-day.  If  we  came  here  for  senti- 
ment, how  every  fountain  of  feeling  within  us  was  unlocked  at  the 
first  by  the  rich  glory  of  this  wintry  sun  shining  its  welcome  upon 
us,  and  then  by  the  stirring  words,  the  glowing  sentiments,  the  noble 
thoughts  of  the  Orator  !  If  we  came  here  for  the  reviving  of  associ- 
ations, how  every  memory  has  been  quickened  by  tlie  speakers  to 
whom  we  have  listened  at  this  table,  and  by  all  the  incidents  of  the 
day  !  And  yet,  enriched  as  we  are,  I  shall  be  happy  for  one,  and  I 
think  we  may  all  count  ourselves  happy,  if  we  can  carry  away  with 
us,  as  the  last  total  impression  of  this  Jubilee,  the  impression  which 
was  left  upon  us  at  the  close  of  the  oration,  and  which  is  revived  in 
the  sentiment  just  i-ead,  that  the  character  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  char- 
acter in  which  their  ideas  were  rooted,  from  which  those  ideas 
sprang,  has  been  the  moulding  force  in  this  Nation,  and  must  be  con- 
served by  us  for  posterity. 

I  say  it  is  well  to  be  brought  back  to  this  last  great  thought  to 
carry  away  with  us ;  for  when  we  are  stirred  to  the  depths  with 
sympathetic  emotions,  it  is  important  that  we  expend  our  sympathy 
at  the  most  effective  point,  and  do  not  foil  into  the  mistake  of  the 
good  lady  who  went  to  Mount  Vernon.  The  attendant  at  the  place 
found  a  lady  weeping  most  bitterly  and  audibly,  with  her  handker- 
chief at  her  eyes.  He  stepped  up  to  her  and  said,  "Madam,  Iiave 
you   lost  any  thing  ?  "     "  No,  sir,"  she  sobbed.     "  Are  you  in  any 


THE    DINNER.  145 

trouble,  madam  ? "  "  No,  sir,"  she  sobbed  again.  "  I  saw  you 
weeping."  "  Ah !  "  said  she,  "  how  can  one  help  weeping  at  the 
grave  of  the  Father  of  his  Country  ?  "  "  Oh,  indeed,  madam,"  said 
he,  "that 'sit!  The  tomb's  over  yonder.  This  is  the  ice-house." 
I  came  here  expecting  to  weep,  and  certainly  expecting  to  find  Ply- 
mouth at  this  time  of  the  year  a  good  deal  of  an  ice-house.  I  am 
disappointed  in  that  respect  most  happily ;  and  now  we  have  been 
brought  so  near  to  the  root-idea  of  the  Pilgrim  movement  that  we 
shall  expend  our  sympathy  where  it  should  go,  at  the  point  from 
which  we  shall  receive  in  return  magnetic  influences  to  carry  with 
us  to  our  homes. 

That  word  "  magnetic  "'  brings  up  in  my  mind  an  association  with 
which  I  may  in  a  word  enforce  the  sentiment.  The  last  time  I  was 
at  Plymouth  —  a  year  n-^o  last  summer  —  I  was  struck  more  than 
ever  before  in  my  life  with  the  feebleness,  the  transitoriness,  of  even 
the  strongest  physical  impressions  in  comparison  with  moral  ideas 
and  forces.  They  were  just  at  that  moment  bringing  into  Duxbury 
the  French  cable,  which  happens  to-day  to  be  our  sole  dependence 
for  news  from  abroad.  You  all  remember  the  laying  of  the  fii-st 
Atlantic  cable  :  what  enthusiasm  was  kindled  upon  two  continents  ; 
how  our  country  was  ablaze  with  illuminations  and  bonfires  ;  how 
the  air  palpitated  with  the  booming  of  cannon  and  the  ringing  of 
bells.  It  was  the  great  event  then  of  the  century.  The  same  thing 
identically  was  repeated  here  at  Duxbury ;  yet  no  man  so  much 
as  took  off  his  hat  in  honor  of  the  occasion  ;  —  so  soon  do  great  physi- 
cal and  material  events  and  interests  cease  to  impress  us.  It  led  me  to 
say  to  myself  at  that  time,  "  Suppose  the  grandest  miracle  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  the  Resurrection,  had  been  repeated  every 
Sunday,  it  would  soon  have  ceased  to  make  any  more  impression 
than  the  returning  of  friends  from  a  journey.  It  was  not  the  physi- 
cal resurrection  :  it  was  the  life  that  was  behind  it  and  in  it,  and 
the  life  immortal  that  it  prophesies  to  all  the  dying  generations  of 
men,  that  give  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ  its  undying  power."  So 
it  was  not  the  laying  of  the  Atlantic  cable,  with  all  the  wondrous 
care  of  machinery,  and  all  the  mighty  agencies  of  steam,  and  all  the 
nice  calculations  of  mathematics,  that  could  make  that  event  a  per- 
petual wonder  or  awaken  interest  in  the  repetition  :  the  true  miracle 
is  the  silent  throbbing  of  that  invisible  force  beneath  the  sea,  all 
untouched  by  the  waves,  unbroken  by  the  mountains  of  the  deep 
that  lie  over  it ;  and  greater  than  any  physical  impression  made  by 

19 


14:6  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

the  forces  of  nature  are  the  moral  impressions  made  by  the  force  of 
principle.  That  power  of  character  wliich  came  to  Plymouth  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  is  more  potent  to-day  than  the  mysterious 
force  of  nature,  made  almost  instinct  with  intelligence,  that  throbs 
in  sixty  seconds  through  the  ocean  that  the  "  Mayflower  "  was  sixty 
days  in  crossing. 

To  turn  it  in  another  way :  suppose  the  men  who  came  over  here 
at  the  first  had  brought  with  them  not  ideas,  not  principles,  but  the 
cable  and  the  railway,  what  manner  of  nation  would  this  have 
proved  to  be  ?  Suppose  in  those  days  there  had  been  such  facility 
of  transportation  that  all  Erin  could  have  been  shipped  over  upon  this 
colony,  what  manner  of  nation  would  this  have  been  ?  Nay,  it  was 
necessary  that  first  of  all  this  Nation  should  be  grounded  in  charac- 
ter—  character,  I  say.  It  is  not  ideas  alone.  It  is  barely  twenty  years 
since  Frenchmen  put  out  the  most  vaporing  ideas  of  liberty,  equality, 
and  fraternity,  on  paper,  in  poems,  in  speeches,  everywhere.  But  what 
is  France  to-day  ?  Without  a  principle,  without  a  flag,  without  a  gov- 
ernment, without  a  cause,  without  a  name,  without  one  rallying  cry, 
such  as  is  wont  to  appeal  to  the  heart  of  a  great  nation,  to  save  her 
from  the  crushing  destruction  that  has  come  upon  her.  Why  ?  Be- 
cause of  that  process  of  systematic  demoralization  to  which  she  has 
been  subjected  through  so  many  years.  France  lost  her  Pilgrim  ele- 
ment in  the  expulsion  and  massacre  of  the  Huguenots ;  and  her  no- 
blest political  aspirations  have  lacked  the  moral  strength  that  comes 
of  a  pure  and  vigorous  religious  feith.  No  strong  and  stable  institu- 
tions of  freedom  can  be  founded  upon  a  mere  declaration  of  the  rights 
of  man  among  his  fellows.  But  the  men  who  came  hither  brought  the 
fundamental  conception  of  man  restored  as  the  child  of  God.  Per- 
sonality was  their  root-idea,  the  personal  soul  linked  to  the  personal 
God  ;  and  this  was  greater  than  King  or  Parliament,  this  was  greater 
than  Church  or  Bishop,  and  no  combination  against  this  could  ever 
crush  it.  And  from  that  root-idea,  —  not  a  general  notion  of  man's 
rights  as  a  citizen,  but  the  religious  notion  of  man's  worth  as  a  soul, 
and  of  man's  worth  as  a  child  of  God,  —  sprang  the  other  idea  of  mu- 
tual recognition,  each  soul  to  be  respected  by  every  other  soul ;  and 
hence  the  Compact.  And  from  this  came  also  the  idea  of  kingship 
and  priesthood  unto  God.  pertaining  to  each  personality  on  board  that 
ship  ;  and  hence  the  free  and  equal  Church.  Thus  it  was  that  they  laid 
here  upon  this  new  shore>  upon  the  borders  of  this  wilderness,  the 
foundation  of  a  nation  of  moral  forces  ;  and  when  our  stern  conflict 


THE    DINNER.  147 

came,  it  was  the  revival  of  those  moral  forces  that  saved  the  Nation. 
So  long  as  slavery  was  restricted  to  a  certain  section  of  the  country, 
we  might  deplore  it,  our  humanity  might  be  touched :  it  did  not 
reach  our  consciences.  But  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  turn 
every  man  and  woman  of  us  into  slave-catchers  ;  when  the  attempt 
was  made  to  turn  the  territory  of  this  Nation  into  a  soil  for  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery,  then  conscience,  the  old  Pilgrim  conscience,  the 
idea  of  the  human  soul  and  its  worth,  was  stirred  and  roused ;  and 
that  it  was  that  at  length  purified  and  restored  and  built  the  Nation. 
So  must  it  be  in  whatever  conflicts  lie  before  us.  The  true  growth  of 
the  Nation  is  not  measured  by  acres  of  grain  or  miles  of  railway  :  it 
must  grow  by  moral  ideas  and  force  of  chai'acter,  grow  by  hugging 
as  its  life  the  principles  established  here  in  the  Pilgrim  character. 
So  great  vitality  has  that  character,  even  when  transplanted,  that  the 
sons  of  the  Pilgrims  may  hope,  according  to  the  foreshadowings  of 
my  respected  and  honored  friend,  the  President  of  the  New  York 
Society,  at  last  to  win  back  New  York  itself  to  justice  and  virtue. 

The  President  at  this  period  of  the  dinner  stated  that  it 
was  now  a  quarter  of  seven  o'clock,  and  that  an  express 
train  would  leave  for  Boston  at  twenty  minutes  past  seven, 
making  no  stop  ;  and  an  accommodation  train  at  half-past 
seven,  stopping  at  all  the  way  stations. 

The  President.  — The  next  toast  which  I  propose  is  — 

Religious  Toleration :  First  exemplified  in  the  treatment  of  Koger  Williams 
by  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth. 

I  have  the  honor  of  introducing  to  you  Hon.  Charles  S. 
Bradley,  of  Rhode  Island. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.    CHARLES   S.   BRADLEY. 

3fr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  —  You  kindly,  sir,  on 
Monday  last,  suggested  to  me  that,  coming  from  Rhode  Island,  I 
should  say  a  word  about  Roger  Williams  on  this  occasion. 

I  took  some  notes  from  his  writings  that  I  might  bring  you  some 
words  from  Roger  Williams  himself;  but,  at  this  late  hour  and  in 
this  dim  light,  I  find  I  cannot  read  them.  Will  you  allow  me, 
therefore,  with  but  an  imperfect  recollection  of  them,  to  give  utter- 
ance for  a  moment  to  some  of  those  feelings  with  which  upon  this 
theme  the  heart  of  every  Rhode  Islander  is  full  ? 


148  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Is  it  not  well,  sir,  as  we  assemble  at  the  eud  of  this  first 
quarter  of  a  thousand  years,  to  commemorate  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims,  whose  crowning  glory  it  was  that  they  sought  and  found 
upon  these  Western  shores,  in  the  words  of  the  closing  line  of  the 
hymn  we  have  just  heard,  — 

"  Freedom  to  worship  God  "  ?  — 

Indeed,  sir,  it  is  well  at  this  time  to  remember  him,  once  living  here 
with  your  forefathers,  ever  tlieir  neighbor  and  friend,  whom  your 
Orator  of  to-day  recognized  as  "  the  apostle  of  soul  freedom." 

We  do  not  forget  the  struggles,  the  controversies,  the  antagon- 
isms of  those  early  days.  We  of  Rhode  Island  also  remember  how 
our  founder,  dwelling  there  apart  (for  of  him,  as  of  his  friend  Mil- 
ton, it  may  be  said, — 

"  Thy  soul  was  like  a  star,  and  dwelt  apart"), — 

how  with  generous  justice  he  felt  and  thought  and  wrote  of  your 
forefathers  of  the  Plymouth  Colony :  "  Of  the  letter  from  my 
ancient  friend,  Mr.  Winslow,  then  Governor  of  Plymouth,  pro- 
fessing his  own  and  others'  love  and  respect  to  me,  yet  lovingly 
advising  me  (since  I  was  fallen  into  the  edge  of  tlieir  bounds,  and 
they  were  loath  to  displease  the  Bay)  to  remove  but  to  the  other 
side  of  the  water ;  and  then  he  said  I  had  the  country  free  before 
me,  and  might  be  as  free  as  themselves,  and  we  should  be  loving 
neighbors  together ;  that  the  then  prudent  and  godly  Governor, 
Mr.  Bradford,  and  others  of  his  godly  council,  said  that  I  should 
not  be  molested  nor  tossed  up  and  down  again  while  they  had 
breath  in  their  bodies,"  and  "  that  great  and  pious  soul,  Mr.  Win- 
slow,  melted  and  visited  me  at  Providence,  and  put  a  piece  of  gold 
into  the  hands  of  my  wife  for  our  supply."  And  even  of  the 
Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  he  writes :  "  It  pleased  the 
Most  High  to  direct  my  steps  into  this  Bay  by  the  loving  private 
advice  of  the  ever-honored  soul,  the  grandfather,  Mr.  John  Win- 
throp,  who,  though  he  was  carried  with  the  stream  for  my  banish- 
ment, yet  he  tenderly  loved  me  to  his  last  breath." 

Again  Williams  writes :  "  I  took  his  prudent  motion  as  a  hint 
and  voice  from  God ;  and,  waiving  all  other  thoughts  and  motions, 
I  steered  my  course  from  Salem  —  though  in  winter  snow,  which  I 
feel  yet  —  into  these  parts  wherein  I  may  say  '  Peniel,'  that  is,  I 
have  seen  the  face  of  God." 


THE    DINNER.  149 

It  was  a  fine  tlionght  of  the  descendant  of  that  Winthrop,  in  his 
oration  to-day,  that  the  separate  strains  and  seeming  discords  of  sin- 
cere seekers  of  truth  on  earth  may  h<i  blended  into  perfect  harmony 
in  the  eternal  ear. 

Our  forefathers  were  of  kingly  nature ;  and  amid  all  that  was 
local  and  personal,  and  sharing  the  infirmities  of  humanity,  they 
could  recognize,  respect,  and  tenderly  love  each  other  to  their  last 
breath.  May  not  their  controversies  [Roger  Williams  termed  his 
works  "  a  musick  not  fitted  to  your  eares,  but  to  your  hearts  "]  be 
for  us  also,  at  this  distant  time,  blended  into  harmony  by  the  one 
great  purpose  of  their  lives? 

Roger  Williams,  after  long  wanderings  by  sea  and  land,  at  last 
found  rest  for  himself  and  his  companions  at  the  head  of  Narragan- 
sett  Bay.  He  says  :  "  Having,  in  a  sense  of  God's  merciful  provi- 
dence to  me  in  my  distress  called  the  place  Providence,  I  desired  it 
might  be-  a  shelter  for  persons  distressed  for  conscience.  I  then 
considered  the  condition  of  divers  of  my  countrymen."  Considering 
their  condition,  he  divided  his  property  among  them.  How  little 
could  he  have  foreseen  the  prosperity  of  which  that  gift  was  the 
corner-stone !  —  that  "  the  place  Providence  "  would  become,  among 
all  the  crowding  cities  of  New  England,  second  to  but  one ;  that 
throughout  his  little  colony  the  inventive  brain  and  cunning  hand 
would  make  every  waterfall,  tumbling  down  the  rocks,  minister 
more  to  the  wants  of  men  than  the  broad,  rich  prairie  of  the  West. 
Her  growth  reminds  one  of  the  quaint  words  of  Williams,  as 
applied  to  another  refuge  for  the  distressed :  "  This  confluence  of 
the  persecuted,  by  God's  most  gracious  coming  with  them,  drew 
boats,  drew  trade,  drew  shipping,  and  that  so  mightily  in  so  short 
a  time  that  shipping,  trade,  wealth,  greatness,  honor,  appeared  to 
fall  as  out  of  heaven  in  a  crown  or  gai'land  upon  the  head  of  this 
poor  fisher  town." 

But  it  is  not  in  this  sequence  of  his  acts  that  we  find  Roger 
Williams's  glory.  It  is  that,  under  his  auspices  and  for  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  our  race,  a  civil  State  was  founded  upon  the 
doctrine  of  soul  liberty.  The  idea  is  expressed  in  the  limitation 
upon  the  civil  compact  made  by  the  settlers  of  Providence  in  a 
few  simple  words,  simple  and  expressive  as  that  description  which 
our  Orator  to-day  cited  of  the  first  Sabbath  rest  of  the  Pilgrims  on 
yonder  island. 

The  compact  which  founded  the  State  was  binding  "  only  in  civil 


150  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

thi)igs"  The  limitation  at  the  end  of  the  compact  was  the  impas- 
sable barrier  which  terminated  the  power  of  the  State.  This  com- 
pact was  made  by  the  "  masters  of  families."  In  the  breaking 
light  of  new  dispensations  (by  some  further  Constitutional  Amend- 
ment, Senator  Wilson)  are  such  powers  soon  to  be  exercised  by 
those  whom,  in  our  day,  masters  of  families  themselves  obey  ? 

Roger  Williams  understood  the  necessity  and  the  limit  of  civil 
government.  He  understood  that,  in  material  matters,  physical 
power  is  the  appointed  medium  of  authority  ;  that  we  must,  from 
our  very  nature,  have  in  practical  life  either  —  to  use  his  own 
words  —  "the  law  of  judges  and  justices  of  the  peace  in  courts  of 
peace,  or  the  law  of  arms,  the  sword  and  blood."  For  practical 
wisdom,  law  indeed  below  ;  but  above,  —  for  the  aspirations  of  the 
soul,  —  liberty  only  ! 

This  thought  was  not  born  to  mankind  in  the  brain  of  Roger 
Williams.  The  illumination  of  which  my  friend,  Mr.  Hillard,  has 
just  spoken  with  such  beauty  and  truth,  did  not  shine  on  his  face 
only.  Such  partiality  to  one  above  his  fellows  does  not  seem  — 
reverently  be  it  spoken  —  to  be  God's  method.  The  light  strikes 
first  upon  all  the  mountain  peaks.  It  kindles  the  vision  of  poets 
and  philosophers,  of  sages  and  Christians.  It  comes  slowly  down  to 
us  men  of  affairs,  —  may  I  say,  Governor  Clifford,  to  governors  and 
judges  ?  —  and  becomes  the  common  light  and  property  of  all  men. 
This  doctrine  of  Roger  Williams  is  found  all  through  history  in 
illuminated  minds.  Even  the  heathen  poet,  speaking  of  the  golden 
age,  says,  — 

"  Sponte  sua,  sine  lege,  fitlem  rectumque  colebat." 
The  dark  and  energetic  Tertullian  says  of  the  Christian  faith, — 
"  Sponte  suscipi  debeat,  non  vi." 

Our  Orator  of  to-day  has  quoted  from  the  lips  of  a  Roman 
Catholic,  the  President  of  the  States  General  of  Holland,  when  the 
forefathers  were  there,  in  an  address  to  that  body,  the  same  grand 
doctrine.  It  is  heard  in  the  sounding  march  of  Milton's  prose.  — 
Jeremy  Taylor  once  ascended  that  mount  of  vision.  It  comes  from 
many  an  humbler  voice  and  pen.  In  earlier  times,  it  is  found  in 
their  first  confession  of  fiiith  by  the  Baptists,  to  their  honor  be  it 
said.  It  was  cherished  by  many  of  our  Pilgrim  and  Puritan 
Fathers.  Toleration  was  practised  by  Friends  and  Catholics  alike 
on  this  Western  shore.      Roger  Williams's  writings  were  chiefly 


THE    DINNER.  151 

devoted  to  the  vindication  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  —  to  soul 
liberty.  In  ponderous  volumes,  he  discusses  the  "  liloudy  Tenent 
of  Persecution  for  Cause  of  Conscience  "  as  "  contrary  to  divine 
and  human  testimonies;"  and,  while  earnestly  seeking  after  some 
Church  or  form  wherein  his  profound  convictions  of  Bible  truth 
might  find  rest,  he  grew  stronger  and  clearer  in  his  denial  of  "  the 
power  of  the  civill  sword  in  spirituals."  To  this  conviction  he 
gave  up  every  thing  but  life,  and  that  was  ever  ready  for  the  sacri- 
fice ;  upon  this  doctrine  he  founded  his  State. 

Having  established  a  compact,  securing  this  right,  in  the  wilds 
of  America,  Roger  Williams  crossed  the  ocean  to  obtain  for  it  the 
sanction  of  the  English  monarch.  Scholar  and  courtier  as  he  was, 
a  sincere  and  earnest  nature  always  and  everywhere,  he  obtained 
"  the  King's  extraordinary  favor  to  this  colony  as  being  a  banished 
one,  in  which  His  Majesty  declared  himself  that  he  would  experi- 
ment whether  civil  government  could  consist  with  such  liberty  of 
conscience." 

The  experiment  was  a  success,  —  successful  in  the  place  of  its 
origin,  the  State  beneath  whose  greensward  he  sleeps,  and  which 
has  clung  with  unfaltei*ing  fidelity  to  the  principle.  It  was  adopted 
by  State  after  State,  — embodied  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  which  has  overarched  our  prosperity  like  the  protecting 
heavens.  And  in  our  day  the  great  doctrine  that  civil  government 
shall  not  be  the  mere  minister  of  eccle.-iastical  power  finds  a  home 
and  ascendency  even  in  Rome  itself. 

In  another  department  in  which  Roger  Williams  is  entitled  to 
our  grateful  remembrance,  he  stood  alone.  It  was,  in  his  own 
simple  phrase,  "  his  soul's  desire  to  do  the  natives  good,  and  to  that 
end  to  learn  their  language."  He  says,  "  God  was  pleased  to  give 
me  a  patient,  painful  spirit  to  lodge  with  them  in  their  filthy,  smoky 
holes,  even  when  I  lived  at  Plymouth  and  Salem,  to  gain  their 
tongue."  The  key  to  their  language  he  has  given  us,  first  compiled 
in  those  weary  voyages  across  the  Atlantic,  when  he  sought  and 
found  a  monarch's  charter  for  religious  freedom. 

Thus  living  with  the  Indian  and  seeking  his  welfare,  they  under- 
stood each  other.  He  bore  in  the  presence  of  the  Indian,  as  in  that 
of  the  monarch,  character,  which,  as  Dr.  Thompson  has  just  truly 
told  us,  is  the  vital  force.  From  it  come  ideas,  institutions,  influ- 
ence. By  that  character  he  obtained  their  confidence  ;  and  when  he 
came,  a  wanderer,  to  the  shores  of  the  Narragansett,  he  received 


152  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

from  their  kings,  Miantonomi  and  Canonicus  (who  distrusted  the 
English),  for  himself  and  comrades,  what  money  alone  could  not 
have  i)urchased,  —  a  home  and  a  welcome. 

Tiiat  confidence  and  character  did  more :  they  saved  the  exist- 
ence of  New  England.  When  the  Pequots  were  soliciting  the 
alliance  of  the  Narragansetts  with  their  five  or  six  thousand  war- 
riors, for  the  extermination  of  the  white  race,  Roger  Williams 
makes  his  way  alone,  in  an  open  boat,  to  the  Indian  councils,  and 
remained  for  days  and  nights  among  those  savages,  the  only  repre- 
sentative of  his  race. 

Rarely  in  human  history  do  great  events  so  depend  upon  a 
single  man.  By  his  knowledge  of  the  Indians  and  their  language, 
and  through  their  confidence  in  him,  he  was  enabled,  under  God,  to 
avert  the  alliance.  The  whites,  with  their  Indian  allies,  overcame 
the  Pequots.  Forty  years  of  peace  ensued,  and  the  infant  colonies 
grew  to  the  stature  and  vigor  of  manhood.  Had  Roger  Williams 
failed  in  that  emergency,  the  life  of  our  New  England  would  have 
been  nipped  in  the  bud :  French  colonization  would  have  occupied 
these  shores,  with  what  results  the  tragedies  in  Europe  to-day  dis- 
close.    But,  sir,  we  must  leave  Roger  Williams  and  the  forefathers. 

We  congratulate  you  that  you  live  here  on  the  eastern  coast  of 
our  New  England,  with  its  clear  bright  sea  and  sparkling  air,  fit 
nursery  for  men.  To  us  is  given,  on  its  southern  coast,  that  island 
called  by  the  Indians  Aquidneck,  the  Isle  of  Peace.  Her  beautiful 
shores  are  now  married  to  civilized  life,  —  the  vast  and  tranquil 
ocean  lingers  lovingly  around  her,  —  above  her  the  heavens  bend  in 
magical  and  evei'-changing  hues  of  beauty,  and  "  the  river  in  the 
sea,"  born  in  the  tropics,  freighted  with  their  fragrance,  brings  to 
those  shores  with  its  balmy  breath  — 

"  An  ampler  ether,  a  diviner  air."  , 

We  welcome  you  to  our  shores.  —  We  accept  your  welcome  here. 
May  we  ever  unite  in  commemorating  the  worth  of  the  past,  and 
receive  new  inspiration  for  the  present  and  the  future. 

The  President.  —  I  have  a  sentiment  to  which  the  Hon. 
George  B.  Loring,  of  Salem,  was  to  have  responded  ;  but 
he  is  necessarily  absent.      It  is  — 

The  Colony  of  Cape  Ann :    The  twin  sister  of  the  Colony  of  Plymouth. 


THE    DINNER.  153 

I  have  also  a  sentiment  in  honor  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts,  to  which  Governor  Claflin  was  to  have  re- 
sponded ;  bat  he  writes  that  he  is  too  ill  to  be  present :  — 

The  Nuptials  of  1G92,  the  Union  of  Massachusetts  and  the  Old  Coloni/ :  Their 
children  inhabit  every  zone ;  no  quarrels  have  ever  alienated  thera ;  no 
divorce  can  separate  tliem. 

Governor  Claflin  telegraphs  me  the  following  toast :  — 

The  Pilgrims  did  not  anticipate  the  results  of  the  principles  they  estab- 
lished :  may  their  descendants  never  in  the  joy  of  fruition  forsake  or  forget 
them. 

I  have  also  a  sentiment  to  which  Hon.  Charles  Francis 
Adams  was  to  have  responded,  but  he  was  obliged  to  leave  at 
an  early  hour  :  — 

The  Mother  Country :  She  maintains  the  strength  of  her  Government  by 
yielding  to  the  demands  of  a  people  inoculated  with  the  principles  of  our 
Fathers,  so  faithfully  illustrated  by  our  representatives  at  her  Court. 

The  President.  —  I  give  as  the  next  sentiment,  — 

The  honored  Gleaners  of  all  that  is  wise  and  instructive  in  the  past :  Doubly 
honored  when  devoted,  through  long  and  active  lives,  to  the  great  com- 
mercial and  agricultural  interests  of  the  State. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.   MARSHALL  P.  WILDER, 

PRESIDENT    OF    THE    NEW    ENGLAND    HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL    SOCIETY. 

3Ir.  President,  and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen^  —  I  thank  you,  sir, 
for  the  kind  invitation  extended  to  me  to  be  present  on  this  most 
interesting  occasion.  But  amidst  the  beautiful  flowers  of  rhetoric 
which  have  bloomed  so  abundantly  around  us  to-day,  and  the  rich 
fruits  of  research  of  which  we  have  partaken,  there  is  but  little  for 
me  to  ofl'er  to  this  assembly. 

You  have  called  on  me,  sir,  to  answer  for  the  New  England 
Historic-Genealogical  Society,  which  I  have  the  honor  to  repre- 
sent. I  am  happy  to  be  here,  and  to  respond  in  her  behalf;  for  it 
is  the  object  of  this  Association  to  treasure  up  and  preserve  the 
history  of  the  forefathers  and  their  descendants,  and  to  transmit  it 
to  future  generations. 

And,  sir,  I  never  hear  the  name  of  old  Plymoutli  mentioned  but 
I  feel  the  most  profound  veneration  for  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  who 
here  laid  the  broad  foundations  of  this  great  Republic,  —  who  here, 

20 


154  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

amidst  (cars,  prayers,  and  sufl'erings,  planted  the  germs  of  a  civiliza- 
tion, w  liicli  lias  budded,  blossomed,  aud  borne  fruit  in  every  civilized 
portion  of  tlie  globe,  —  who  here  established  those  principles  which 
have  sustained  our  government  and  made  our  country  what  it  is  ; 
principles  wliich  ai"e  fast  revolutionizing  the  nations  of  the  Old 
World,  and  which,  wc  believe,  arc  destined  ultimately  to  regenerate 
the  kingdoms  of  this  earth. 

But  the  thought  which  impresses  me  to-day  is  the  amazing  prog- 
ress in  science,  art,  and  in  every  thing  that  pertains  to  the  happi- 
ness of  the  human  family,  since  the  landing  of  our  Fathers  on 
these  shores. 

With  what  anticipation  and  exultation  would  our  Fathers  have 
looked  forward,  could  they  have  seen,  as  we  now  see,  the  great 
future,  all  to  them  unknow^n,  of  the  colony  which  they  were  plant- 
ing? How  great  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  since  that 
day !  Then  no  village  bell  chimed  for  church  or  school,  no  temple 
for  worship,  save  the  "  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods,"  canopied 
by  the  blue  ether  above  :  now  our  cities,  towns,  and  villages  rise 
as  by  magic,  and  adorn  our  hill-sides  and  broad  valleys  ;  and  now 
our  chiu'ches,  schools,  and  benevolent  institutions,  like  manna  from 
the  skies,  are  scattered  broadcast  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  our  happy  land. 

Then  the  "  Mayflower  "  crept  timidly  along  this  shore,  waiting 
for  wind  and  tide ;  now  our  gigantic  steamers  dash  up  our  mighty 
rivers,  and  across  lakes  and  oceans,  despite  of  wind  or  tide  or 
storm. 

Then  the  voice  of  our  Fathers  echoed  in  the  dark  forest  only  to 
return  and  die  upon  the  shore  ;  now  the  voice  of  their  descendants 
is  heard  in  every  language  and  land,  and  to-day,  through  the  genius 
of  their  sons,  it  speaks,  with  lightning  flash,  throughout  the  earth. 

Then  the  track  of  the  wild  beast  and  the  trail  of  the  wild  man 
had  only  furrowed  the  surface  of  our  continent :  now  a  net-work 
of  intercommunication,  with  arteries  scarcely  less  numerous  than 
those  of  the  human  system,  encompasses  and  covers  our  broad 
domain ;  and  through  it  flow  the  trade,  commerce,  and  intercourse, 
not  only  of  our  own  people,  but  it  furnishes  also  a  great  highway 
across  the  continent  for  the  people  of  all  other  nations  and  all  time. 

With  what  surprise  would  that  little  Pilgrim  band  have  looked 
forward,  could  they  have  anticipated  that,  in  two  and  a  half  cen- 
turies, their  population  of  a  hundred  souls,  together  with  the  little 


THE    DINNER.  155 

colony  in  Virginia,  and  a  handful  of  Dutch  on  the  shores  of  the 
Hudson,  would  be  multiplied  into  forty  millions  I  or,  still  more 
wonderful,  could  they  have  passed  with  us  to-day  by  the  same  old 
Rock,  while  celebrating  the  fifth  jubilee  of  their  landing,  and  look 
forward,  as  we  now  look,  to  the  sixth  jubilee,  when,  according  to 
the  last  estimates,  that  population  will  be  increased  to  one  hundred 
millions  of  souls.  Would  they  not  say,  "  Truly  this  work  is  marvel- 
lous in  our  eyes :  a  little  one  has  become  a  thousand,  and  a  small 
one  a  great  nation  "  ? 

And  how  would  they  have  rejoiced,  when  partaking  of  their 
scanty  meal  of  five  kernels  of  corn,  or  when  rendering  special 
thanks  for  the  annual  crop  of  twenty  bushels  of  corn  and  six  bushels 
of  oats  and  peas,  —  how  would  their  voices  have  broken  forth  in 
hallelujahs  of  thanksgiving  to  the  God  of  harvest,  could  they  have 
had  a  vision  of  the  thousand  millions  of  bushels  in  our  annual  crop, 
—  a  crop  of  grain  sufficient  to  give  a  bushel  each  to  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  on  the  face  of  the  globe  ! 

How  would  the  soul  of  the  generous  Peregrine  White  have 
swelled  with  joy,  had  he  known,  when  planting  his  apple-tree  at 
Marshfield,  that  this  fruit  would  become  an  article  of  daily  food,  or 
that  his  orchard  of  one  tree  would  be  magnified  into  orchards  of 
twenty  thousand  or  more  trees  of  a  single  variety !  And  although 
it  is  recorded  that  Governor  AVinthrop  some  years  after  had  a 
good  store  of  pippins,  yet  neither  of  these  gentlemen  could  have 
foreseen  the  influence  of  their  example  in  New  England,  not  to 
speak  of  three  counties  in  New  York  that  produce  annually  five 
hundred  thousand  barrels  of  apples,  or  the  annual  crop  of  our 
country,  sufficient  to  regale  the  appetites  of  every  human  being  in 
the  United  States.  Think  what  Governor  Endicott  would  have 
said,  if  he  had  been  told  that  the  planting  of  his  first  pear-tree 
at  Salem  would  be  multiplied  into  thousands  of  orchards,  some 
of  which  in  our  own  State  contain  eight  hundred  or  one  thousand 
varieties,  all  better  than  his  own  ;  and  that,  instead  of  being  trained 
and  nursed  in  the  gardens  of  the  opulent,  this  fruit  should  be  enjoyed 
by  the  western  pioneer  on  the  Pacific  coast  as  well  as  by  the  eastern 
magistrate,  from  whence  we  have  received,  within  a  few  days, 
pears  weighing  four  pounds  and  nine  ounces. 

But  I  must  not  prolong  this  train  of  thought.  The  more  I  con- 
template the  history  of  this  country,  the  more  I  reflect  on  the  great 
moral  and    political    events    which    have    elevated    our   nation    to 


156  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

heaven  in  point  of  privilege,  the  more  1  am  impressed  with  tlie 
obligation  to  do  something  for  its  advancement,  sometliing  to  aid 
this  grand  march  of  improvement.  And  how  sublime  the  record 
of  the  past !  The  discovery  of  this  continent,  how  momentous  in 
its  results !  The  development  of  its  resources,  how  vs^onderful  and 
grand  !     The  example  of  its  people,  how  great  and  good ! 

No  event  since  the  birth  of  our  blessed  Saviour  has  been  fraught 
with  such  mighty  issues  as  the  mission  of  our  Fathers  to  this  land. 
And  how  would  their  souls  have  been  moved  with  joy  and  thanks- 
giving, could  they,  when  kindling  the  glimmering  fires  of  civil  and 
religious  freedom,  have  had  but  a  glimpse  of  the  bow  of  promise 
which  irradiates  the  present  day  !  Already  the  day-star  of  glory 
has  arisen  ;  and,  like  that  which  led  the  wise  men  of  the  East,  cul- 
minating over  Judea's  j^lains,  the  star  of  empire,  leading  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  finds  its  meridian  height  over  this  western  world.  How 
marvellous  the  story !  It  is  only  one-fourth  of  a  thousand  years 
since  the  eagle  of  liberty  first  rested  her  foot  on  our  rock-bound 
coast,  —  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  !  And  now  to-day  she 
stands  perched  on  yonder  mountain  peak,  stretching  her  broad 
wings  from  sea  to  sea,  and  proclaiming  to  the  uttermost  ends  of  the 
earth,  Liberty  of  Conscience  !  Freedom  for  all  !  Servitude 
FOR  none ! 

The  next  toast  will  be  — 

The  Old  Town  of  Boston :  Though  Plymouth  had  ten  years  the  start,  slie 
is  not  annoyed  at  being  distanced  in  the  race  ;  for  she  knows  the  jockey  who 
wins  is  an  Old  Colony  Boy. 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  Hon.  N.  B. 
Shurtleff,  Mayor  of  Boston,  whom  we  claim  as  a  son  of 
the  Old  Colony. 

RESPONSE   OF   HON.   N.   B.    SHURTLEFF. 

31):  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  —  For  remembering  so 
kindly  the  city  of  Boston  on  this  pleasant  occasion,  my  fellow-citizens, 
who  are  so  largely  represented  here  to-day,  will  be  very  grateful  to 
the  good  people  of  this  ancient  town,  —  descendants  of  renowned 
worthies,  the  forefathers  of  the  good  old  Colony  of  New  Plymouth. 
1  am  well  pleased  also  that  you  recognize  me  as  one  closely  allied 
to  the  Old  Colony  people  ;  for,  although  a  native  of  Boston,  I  feel 


THE    DINNER.  157 

proud  tliiit  every  one  of  my  American  ancestors  were  born  witliin 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  and  that  every  drop  of 
blood  that  iiows  through  my  veins  comes  directly  from  the  Pilgrims. 

On  this,  the  shortest  day  of  the  year,  I  have  come,  as  a  humble 
Pilgrim,  to  the  hallowed  homes  of  my  revered  ancestors  to  spend 
with  you  the  longest  night  our  season  affords,  in  order  to  recall  the 
mighty  deeds  which  they  of  old  performed,  and  to  renew  with  you 
my  fealty  to  those  principles  that  led  them  in  such  an  inclement 
season  of  the  year  to  brave  the  dangers  of  an  almost  unknown 
ocean,  to  establish  a  new  home  on  inhospitable  shores,  and  a  colony 
determined  on  self-government, —  that  surest  guarantee  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty ;  and  for  the  enactment  of  laws,  which  they  them- 
selves would  make,  enforce,  and  willingly  obey ;  and  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  perfect  freedom  in  religious  worship,  untrammelled  by  rules 
observances  and  usages  inflicted  by  the  persecutions  of  uncompromis- 
ing hierarchies.  Here,  on  this  spot,  made  sacred  by  the  sufferings, 
hardships,  and  endurances  of  the  self-exiled  Pilgrims,  we  have 
gathered  together  to  commemorate  the  great  event  that  occurred  just 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  to  pay  our  tribute  of  gratitude 
to  those  most  estimable  persons ;  and,  in  viewing  the  places  where 
they  once  dwelt,  toiled,  and  worshipped,  and  in  recalling  to  mind 
their  virtues  and  good  principles,  to  show  our  appreciation  of  their 
lives,  character,  and  actions,  and  a  proper  regard  for  their  memories. 
We  have  come  to  this  particular  place,  that  we  may  be  able  to  re- 
joice at  the  excellence  of  these  our  Fathers  in  the  very  field  of  their 
early  privations  and  labors,  and  to  reciprocate  congratulations  that 
the  grand  object  which  they  attained  by  coming  to  New  England 
has  been  so  fliithfully  preserved  for  our  enjoyment.  Let  us  be  care- 
ful to  preserve  the  good  inheritance  which  our  Fathers  have  left  us, 
and  let  us  transmit  it  unimpaired  to  the  latest  posterity,  that  coniino- 
generations  may  hail  this  natal  day,  as  we  do  now,  as  that  on  which 
was  born  the  freest  of  all  the  i;overnments  of  the  world.  Foro^et 
not  the  pledges  of  that  little  compact  of  forty-one  men,  written  per- 
haps in  twenty  lines  and  signed  in  Provincetown  Harbor,  —  the  first 
written  constitution  the  world  ever  knew.  More  potent  has  been 
that  simple  instrument  of  only  two  hundred  words  than  have  been 
all  the  charters  displayed  on  parchment,  with  emblazonry,  and  sanc- 
tioned by  the  broadest  and  greatest  seals  of  princely  potentates. 

When  one  comes  to  Plymouth,  Mr.  President,  the  first  inquiry  is 
for  the  landmarks  of  the  olden  time  and  the  vestiges  of  the  first- 


158  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

comers.  Some  of  the>e  have  been  shown  us  to-tlay,  as  we  have 
passed  over  tlie  roads  and  thi-oui^di  th(j  Ity- ways,  once  the  accustomed 
walks  of  your  venerated  predecessors.  We  have  paid  our  wonted 
passuig  respects  to  the  solitary  old  Rock  that  so  opportunely  served 
in  1G20  as  a  landing  place  for  the  Pilgrim  voyagers,  and  as  a  monu- 
ment for  all  future  time  of  one  of  the  most  memorable  events  in  the 
history  of  our  country.  More  enduring  will  be  the  fame,  and  the 
presence  too,  of  that  rough  unsculptured  boulder,  than  chiselled 
statue  or  lofty  memorial  of  smoothly  hammered  ashler.  As  we 
marched  by  the  water-side  and  beneath  the  sacred  hillock  that  over- 
looks the  placid  waters  of  the  harbor  that  so  kindly  bore  ui)on  its 
bosom  the  Pilgrim  vessels,  we  have  instinctively  bowed  our  heads 
in  filial  veneration  of  the  little  band  of  adventurers  who  came  to  this 
spot  two  hundi'ed  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  one-half  of  whom  w-ere 
gathered  to  their  earthly  rest  beneath  its  sod  during  that  dreadful 
first  winter  of  the  colonists  of  New  Plymouth  ^^ ;  and  as  we  trod  our 
wav  througli  your  Leyden  Street,  with  its  ancient  dwellings,  genial 
reminders  of  the  pleasant  days  of  the  past,  we  could  almost  call  back 
to  their  first  "  meersteads  and  garden  plots  "  our  w^ell-beloved  foi'e- 
fathers,  and  behold  each  with  his  family  standing  in  his  appointed 
lot. 

I  had  hoped,  Mr.  President,  that  you  would  have  had  sufficient  time 
to  have  taken  us  around  and  shown  more  of  your  interesting  memo- 
rials of  the  olden  time.  What  recollections  and  associations  of  the 
past  would  have  been  thus  awakened!  Your  old  town  brook,  that 
afforded  in  days  of  yore  a  safe  dockage  for  the  Pilgrims'  pinnace, 
and  an  abundance  of  the  famous  good  Old  Colony  staple  that  we  are 
told  could  once  run  up  to  Billington  Sea  as  easily  as  now  down 
Taunton  River ;  the  Pilgrim  spring  that  supplied  the  temperate 
beverage  of  the  first  comers ;  the  hill  at  our  south  where  first  ap- 
peared aboriginal  friendship,  —  these  are  marks  of  interest  which  we 
could  have  revisited  with  advantage  as  well  as  with  antiquarian 
pleasure.  From  yonder  sacred  hill,  where  so  peacefully  repose  the 
once  active  spirits  of  your  town,  you  could  have  pointed  out  innu- 
merable objects  of  interest.  Upon  the  brow  of  that  eminence  are 
gathered  the  mortal  remains  of  worthies  whose  names  are  most 
indelibly  fixed  in  our  memories,  and  the  remembrance  of  whom  is 
always  dearest  in  our  thoughts.  On  this  day,  sir,  our  minds  should 
be  entirely  given  to  the  past;  and  we  all  hope  to  be  pardoned  if  we 
indulge  somewhat  personally  in  the  glorious  recollections  of  the 


THE    DINNER.  159 

virtues  of  our  predecessors.  Recreant,  indeed,  sir,  should  we  all 
be,  were  we  to  forget  on  this  occasion  the  great  results  that  liave 
emanated  from  the  good  principles,  the  noble  daring,  the  patient 
sufferings,  and  the  estimable  attributes  of  our  ancestry. 

I  have  come  here  to-day,  my  friends,  to  rejoice  with  you  that  the 
"May  Flower,"  the  " Fortune,"  and  the  "Ann"  found  their  haven  of 
rest  on  these  shores ;  and  however  much  we  of  Boston  may  admire 
and  reverence  the  Puritan  Fathers  of  the  old  Massachusetts  Colony 
who  founded  our  ancient  metropolis,  we  are  always  willing,  and  at  all 
times  ready,  to  yield  the  palm  to  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims,  who,  plac- 
ing liberty  of  conscience  high  above  all  other  things,  first  planted 
their  hopes  upon  the  soil  where  we  are  now  congregated  to  do  them 
just  reverence. 

The  President.  —  I  propose  as  the  last  sentiment, — 

The  Sons  of  New  England  beyond  our  Borders :  Under  wliatever  flag  they 
live,  they  illustrate  and  reflect  with  honor  and  pride  Pilgrim  ideas  and  Pil- 
grim principles. 

This  sentiment  was  responded  to  by  Hon.  T.  Sterry 
Hunt,  President  of  the  New  England  Society  in  Montreal. 

SPEECH   OF   HON.   MR.    HUNT. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  to-day  visit  for  the  iirst  time  a  spot 
which  from  my  childhood  I  have  been  taught  to  look  upon  as  the 
birthplace  not  only  of  a  nation,  but  of  a  new  political  and  social 
order.  With  no  less  pleasure  do  I  appear  here  among  you  at  this 
banquet  as  the  representative  of  the  New  England  Society  of  Mon- 
treal. It  might  not  seem  necessary  that  I  should  bring  with  me 
any  other  credentials  than  those  given  me  by  my  title  of  President 
of  the  Society,  were  it  not  that  our  Society  has  so  enlarged  its  scope 
as  to  include  Americans,  not  of  New  England  birth,  who  may  be  resi- 
dents in  Canada,  and  did  I  not  wish  to-day  to  glory  in  my  New 
England  birth  and  lineage,  surely  a  pardonable  pride  on  an  occasion 
like  the  present.  Under  the  old  regime  in  France,  certain  honors 
of  the  Court  were  accorded  only  to  those  who  could  prove  a  long 
descent  from  gentle  blood,  unmingled  with  any  base  plebeian  stain, 
and  who  by  heraldic  laws  were  entitled  to  quarter  the  armorial  bear- 
ings of  so  many  Prankish  barons  or  conquering  crusaders.  If  in 
this  land  of  ours,  where  all  are  sovereigns,  we  are  to  recognize  any 
hereditary  title  of  rank  or  distinction,  it  should  be  for  such  as  can 


160  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

claim  a  (lescont  from  those  brave  rviiglishmen,  wlio,  llirough  tlieir 
faith  ill  (u)d  and  in  the  rights  of  man,  conquered  the  wiklerness,  sub- 
dued savages,  and  built  up  on  these  shores  our  free  institutions.  For 
myself,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  I  can  boast  that  for  more  than  two 
hundred  years  my  ancestors,  on  both  sides,  have  been  dwellers  on 
New  England  soil,  and,  though  not  of  the  little  band  of  the  "  May- 
flower," may  claim  a  place  among  the  forefathers  of  this  Common- 
wealth and  of  Rhode  Island.  Although  the  pursuit  of  science  has 
led  me  to  spend  some  years  of  my  life  in  Canada,  "  my  heart,  un- 
travelled,  fondly  turns"  to  my  home  and  that  of  my  fathers;  and  I 
come  here  to-day,  a  reverent  pilgrim,  feeling  that  earth  has  for  me 
but  one  more  hallowed  spot  than  this. 

The  sentiment  which  we  have  just  heard  from  the  chair  recognizes 
the  fact  that  the  influences  which  have  gone  out  from  this  centre  have 
passed  beyond  the  borders  of  our  great  Republic.  It  is  significant 
that  New  England  Societies  exist  in  Montreal  and  Toronto ;  but  we 
must  look  farther  and  wider,  if  we  would  measure  the  extent  of  those 
influences  in  the  British  American  Provinces,  and  in  doing  so  must 
glance  at  a  chapter  in  our  history  which  is  often  lost  sight  of. 

Emerson  has  beautifully  compared  old  England  to  the  banyan-tree 
of  the  East,  whose  branches,  touching  the  earth,  take  root  and  grow 
to  be  trees  themselves.  Grandest  of  all  these  offshoots  was  the 
branch  which,  stretching  far  over  the  ocean,  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  since,  took  root  in  this  seemingly  sterile  soil,  and  has  since 
grown  to  be  a  mighty  tree  whose  branches,  in  their  turn,  have  planted 
themselves  throughout  our  land,  until  they  overshadow  a  continent. 
To-day,  on  the  shores  of  the  great  lakes,  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and 

"  Where  die  sun,  with  softer  fires, 
Loolvs  on  tlie  vast  Pacific's  sleep," 

beside  the  golden  gate  of  the  West,  "  the  children  of  the  Pilgrim 
sires  "  keep  with  us  high  festival  beneath  the  shadow  of  that  tree 
whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nation. 

But  of  the  tree  which  struck  root  on  Plymouth  Rock,  there  is  an 
offshoot  beyond  our  border,  about  which  I  would  say  a  few  words 
to-day.  There  went  out  from  New  England,  three  generations  ago, 
a  colony  of  men,  and  of  women  too,  who  have  since  played  in  the 
history  of  this  continent  a  part  honorable  alike  to  the  land  of  their 
birth  and  the  place  of  their  voluntary  exile.  I  speak  of  the  expa- 
triated Tories  of  the  Revolution,  or,  as  they  loved  to  call  themselves, 


THE    DINNER.  161 

the  United  Empire  Loyalists.  To-day,  when  the  actors  in  the  great 
drama  of  the  War  of  our  Independence  have  passed  away,  and 
the  strifes  and  hatreds  of  that  time  are  forgotten,  a  descendant  of 
those  who  fought  and  conquered  them  may  be  permitted  to  speak  a 
word  in  behalf  of  the  old  New  England  Loyalists  and  their  children. 
Let  me  here  say  that  a  residence  of  many  years  in  Canada  has  no 
whit  diminished  my  love  and  reverence  for  the  founders  of  the 
American  Republic,  whose  names,  whose  cause,  and  whose  honor  I 
hold  no  less  sacred  than  that  of  our  Pilgrim  forefathers.  The  logic 
of  events  has  doubtless  already  taught  many  of  the  sons  of  the  old 
Loyalists  to  regret  the  mistaken  zeal  and  the  errors  of  their  ancestors  ; 
yet  it  is  not  without  pride  that  they  look  back  to  the  sufferings 
and  sacrifices  of  that  band  of  adherents  to  the  crown,  who  became 
exiles  for  conscience'  sake.  They  were  erring  sons  who  went  out 
from  their  father's  house,  but  have  after  all  proved  themselves  no  un- 
worthy scions  of  the  old  stock.  That  they  carried  with  them  much 
of  the  spirit  of  their  ancestors,  the  subsequent  history  of  these  self- 
exiled  New  Englanders  has  abundantly  shown.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  what  is  most  worthy  of  honor  in  the  history  of  the  English- 
speaking  population  of  the  British  American  Provinces  is  to  be 
traced  to  the  American  Loyalists  and  their  descendants,  who  left  this 
country  at  the  time  of  our  War  of  Independence. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task  for  us  to-day  to  put  ourselves  in  the  posi- 
tion of  those  men,  after  the  experience  of  nearly  a  century  has  justi- 
fied the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  in  resisting  even  to  blood  the 
authority  of  the  Crow^n,  that  they  might  win  for  themselves  and 
for  their  children  a  free  press,  free  commerce,  and  the  right  of  self- 
government.  The  patriots  of  the  Revolution  at  first  claimed  no 
more  than  these,  and  demanded  less  of  Great  Britain  than  she  has 
since  accorded  to  those  North  American  Colonies  which  still  own 
her  sway.  We  find,  however,  among  the  two  thousand  souls  who 
at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  left  the  shores  of  Massachusetts,  ad- 
herents to  the  Crown,  a  list  of  names  which  any  cause  might  be 
proud  to  claim.  They  were,  very  many  of  them,  of  the  best  blood 
of  New  England,  —  men  of  every  profession,  jurists  and  divines  as 
well  as  merchants  and  yeomen.  No  small  proportion  of  the 
graduates  of  Harvard  and  Yale  were  among  those  who  then  sought 
a  home  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  or  on  the  inhospitable 
shores  of  the  Acadian  provinces.  These  nden  were  not  altogether 
recreant  to  the  spirit  of  their  sires,  though  their  love  to  the  Crown, 

21 


162  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

and  to  the  English  Cliurch,  to  which  very  many  of  tliem  adhered, 
led  them  to  cling  to  the  British  cause.  They  showed  the  ancient 
spirit  by  surrendering  wealth,  position,  and  friends,  and  betaking 
themselves  to  a  new  land  as  their  fathers  had  done  before  them. 

I  may  be  permitted  by  a  few  examples  to  show  the  part  which  the 
Loyalists  and  their  descendants  have  played  in  the  country  of  their 
adoption,  where  their  names  have  always  stood  foremost  in  law,  in 
letters,  and  in  statesmanship.  I  may  name  Jonathan  Sewall,  of 
Boston,  the  friend  of  John  Adams,  whose  son  was  for  many  years 
Chief  Justice  of  Lower  Canada ;  the  late  Sir  Brenton  Haliburton, 
jurist,  historian,  and  humorist,  a  native  of  Rhode  Island ;  Sir  John 
Wentworth,  Governor  of  New  Hampshire,  and  afterwards  of  Nova 
Scotia,  whose  descendants  in  Canada  still  inherit  the  great  qualities 
of  their  race  ;  Upham,  of  Brookfield,  a  name  and  a  family  in  honor 
both  in  Nova  Scotia  and  in  Massachusetts ;  Coffin,  of  Boston, 
whose  descendants  are  prominent  both  in  New  Brunswick  and  in 
Canada  ;  Rowth,  of  Salem,  late  Chief  Justice  of  Newfoundland  ; 
Jarvis,  of  Connecticut,  who  held  a  similar  office ;  Winslow,  of  Fly- 
mouth,  the  orator  of  the  day  at  our  festival  here  one  hundred  years 
ago,  afterwards  judge  and  administrator  of  the  government  of  New 
Brunswick.^''  Putnam,  Wetmore,  Botsford,  and  Bliss,  are  names  not 
less  famous  in  the  history  of  this  colony ;  and  the  grandson  of  the 
latter,  the  second  judge  of  his  name,  descended  from  the  Wilmots,  a 
Loyalist  family  of  Long  Island,  is  now  Governor  of  New  Brunswick. 
Howe,  President  of  the  Federal  Council,  is  the  son  of  a  Bostonian. 
Aylwin  and  Day,  now  ornaments  of  the  Quebec  Bar,  are  of  the  same 
good  stock. 

If  from  the  example  of  our  Montreal  New  England  Society  I  might 
enlarge  my  limits,  so  as  to  take  in  names  from  others  of  the  old 
thirteen  colonies,  I  could  add  the  Robinsons,  of  Toronto,  repre- 
sented by  the  late  Chief  Justice  Sir  John  Beverley  Robinson ;  the 
Stuarts,  of  Quebec,  descendants  of  the  late  Sir  James  Stuart ;  the 
Ogdens  and  the  Smiths,  of  New  York ;  Sir  William  Logan,  son  of 
a  New  York  Loyalist ;  Egerton  Ryerson,  the  founder  of  the  common 
school  system  of  Upper  Canada,  whose  father  was  from  New  Jersey ; 
and  many  others,  whose  names  and  titles  to  distinction  would  occupy 
us  too  long.  The  record  is  already  sufficient  to  show  that  the  New 
Euglanders  of  to-day  have  no  cause  to  be  ashamed  of  the  sons  of  the 
United  Empire  Loyalists. 

But  I  must  not  forget  that  it  is  not  as  their  representative  that  I 


THE    DINNER.  163 

appear  before  you  on  this  occasion.  Adventurous  sons  of  New  Eng- 
land have  in  the  present  generation  contributed  their  full  share  to 
develope  in  various  directions  the  resources  of  the  British  American 
Provinces.  In  bringing  forth  the  wealth  of  the  forests  and  the 
mines,  and  in  every  branch  of  manufacture,  New  England  skill  and 
industry  have  been  prominent,  until  the  name  of  ''  Yankee  "  has  there 
become  synonymous  with  enterprise,  thrift,  and  success.  The  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Dominion  places  no  barrier  to  their  political  advance- 
ment ;  and  native  Americans  of  Whig  descent  are  to-day  to  be  found 
in  the  House  of  Commons  and  in  the  Senate,  side  by  side  with  the 
children  of  the  old  New  England  Tories.  An  American  of  New 
England  name  and  lineage,  Howland  of  New  York,  a  successful 
merchant  and  a  minister  of  finance,  is  now  Governor  of  the  Province 
of  Ontario. 

And  now  to  repeat  a  question  often  as^ked  me.  What  is  the  destiny 
of  these  British  American  Colonies?  The  old  imperial  idea,  which 
made  the  greatness  of  Rome,  which  is  the  strength  of  resuscitated 
Germany,  and  makes  us  to-day  a  great  and  strong  Nation,  is  ap- 
parently losing  its  hold  on  the  governing  class  in  England.  The 
policy  of  abandoning  her  foreign  possessions  now  finds  advocates 
among  the  statesmen  of  Great  Britain  ;  and  the  dismantled  fortresses 
of  her  North  American  Provinces,  from  which  the  last  gun  and  the 
last  soldier  are  being  removed,  tell  us  plainly  that,  for  good  or  for 
evil,  Britain  is  leaving  the  colonies  to  themselves.  Meanwhile  the 
vision  of  a  great  united  empire  rises  before  the  eyes  of  Canadian 
statesmen,  who  dream  of  a  new  nation  stretching  to  the  northward  of 
us  from  sea  to  sea.  Such  a  conception  shows  a  great  progress  in 
national  life,  and  is  fitted  to  call  forth  the  best  energies  of  the  Cana- 
dian people.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be  certain :  that  this  great 
country,  with  its  immense  resources,  has  before  it  a  noble  future  ;  and 
that,  whether  as  a  new  nationality  or  as  a  jjart  of  this  great  Republic, 
American  ideas  and  New  England  virtues  will  always  be  found 
powerful  influences  in  guiding  and  in  shaping  its  destinies. 

The  President.  —  It  is  now  quarter  past  seven  o'clock  : 
the  trains  are  ready ;  and  as  I  welcomed  the  coming,  I  now 
speed  our  parting,  guests. 


THE      B  A  L  L. 


'nr^HE  programme  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements 
closed  with  a  grand  ball  in  the  evening,  in  Davis  Hall, 
which  was  attended  by  about  fom'  hundred  ladies  and  gentle- 
men, and  exceeded  in  brilliancy  any  thing  of  the  kind  ever 
before  undertaken  in  •Plymouth.  The  hall  was  brilliantly 
lighted,  and  decorated  with  good  taste  and  judgment.  The 
floor  was  covered  with  white  canvas,  and  the  entries  and 
stairs  were  carpeted  to  the  outer  door.  In  front  of  the 
gallery  over  the  stage  the  date  1620,  and  at  the  opposite  end 
of  the  hall  the  date  1870,  were  exhibited  in  jets  of  gas, 
adding  much  to  the  brilliancy  of  the  scene.  The  names  of 
Carver,  Bradford,  Winslow,  Standish,  White,  Alden, 
Brewster,  and  Chilton,  were  displayed  in  green  on  each 
side  of  the  two  dates ;  and  portraits  of  Edavard  Winslow, 
JosiAH  Winslow,  Penelope  Winslow,  the  wife  of  Josiah, 
John  Winslow,  George  Washington,  Ephraim  Spooner, 
John  Davis,  Jajvies  Thacher,  John  Trumbull,  John 
Alden,  and  James  Kendall,  hung  on  the  walls.  Baskets 
of  rich  flowers  were  suspended  from  the  columns,  bearing  in 
their  fragrance  constant  testimony  to  the  delicate  taste  with 
which  the  details  of  the  programme  were  carried  out. 

A  coffee-room  was  open  from  the  beginning  to  the  close  of 
the  ball ;  and  the  supper-room,  which  was  opened  at  twelve 
o'clock,  was  abundantly  supplied  until  the  last  dance  was 
finished. 


166  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

The  music,  furnished  by  Gilmore's  Band,  consisted  of  nine 
pieces,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  John  T.  Baldwin  as 
prompter ;  and,  under  the  careful  management  of  the  floor 
managers,  the  ball  was  conducted  to  a  brilliant  conclusion  at 
about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

With  the  last  strains  of  the  music  in  Davis  Hall,  the  Cele- 
bration closed ;  and  while  those  upon  whom  its  labors  and 
responsibilities  rested  congratulate  themselves  upon  its  suc- 
cessful consummation,  all  who  participated  in  its  ceremonies 
and  festivities  will  remember  with  ever-increasing  pleasure 
the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing 
of  the  Pilgrims. 


APPENDIX. 


LETTERS  IN  REPLY  TO  INVITATIONS. 

Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  Plymouth,  Mass. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  12tli  inst. 
inviting  me  to  attend  the  Celebration  of  the  Anniversary  of  the 
Landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  would  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  be 
present  upon  an  occasion  of  so  much  interest ;  but  it  will  be  im- 
possible to  leave  the  capital  at  that  time,  and  I  am  compelled  to 
decline  your  very  cordial  invitation. 

Respectfully  yours, 

U.  S.  Grant. 
Executive  IMansion,  Nov.  19th,  1870. 


Washington,  Dec.  1,  1870. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  Gratifying  as   it    would    be  to  participate  in 
your  Celebration,  I  regret  to  have  to  reply  that  public  duties  here 
prevent  the  acceptance  of  the  invitation  with  which  1  have  been 
honored. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Schuyler  Colfax. 
Hon.  W.  T.  Davis. 


Department  of  State, 
Washington,   Dec.   14,  1870. 
Messrs.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  Wm.  H.  Whitman,  &c.,  Plymouth,  Mass.,  Com- 
mittee of  Arrangements. 

Gentlemen, — Your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  Celebration  of 
the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  presents  a  temptation  to  which  I  would  be 


168  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

glad  to  yield,  but  for  the  pressure  of  official  duties  which  will  re- 
quire my  presence  here. 

Accept,  I  beg  you,  my  thanks  for  the  invitation. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

Hamilton  Fish. 
— • — 

Treasury  Department, 
■  Office  of  the  Secretary,  Nov.  16,  1870. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  regret  to  learn  from  your  letter  of  the  12th  inst. 
that  I  accidentally  neglected  to  reply  to  your  former  letter  extend- 
ing to  me  an  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  Two  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Ply- 
mouth. 

I  presented  to  the  President  your  invitation  to  him,  and  I  also 
said  a  word  in  favor  of  his  accepting  it ;  but  I  inferred  from  his 
conversation,  what  I  had  reason  to  expect  from  my  knowl- 
edge of  affairs,  that  he  would  feel  compelled  to  decline.  I  fear, 
also,  that  it  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  be  present,  although  I  should 
esteem  it  a  great  privilege  to  unite  with  the  descendants  of  the  Pil- 
grims in  celebrating  their  virtues  and  heroism. 

The  invitations  enclosed  with  your  letter  of  the  12th  inst.  will  be 
presented  to  the  gentlemen  for  whom  they  are  designed. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obed't  serv't, 

Geo.  S.  Boutavell. 
Hon.  William  T.  Davis, 

Chairman  of  Committee  of  Arrangements. 


Department   of   the   Interior, 
Washington,  Nov.  23,  1870. 
Wm.  T.  Davis,  Wm.  H.  Whitman,  and  others, 

Committee  of  Arrangements  for  Pilgrim  Society. 

Gentlemen,  —  Your  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  Celebration 
of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  on  the  21st  of  Decem- 
ber, is  received. 

I  regret  to  say  that  pressure  of  official  business  will  compel  me 
to  decline  your  very  cordial  invitation.  You  have  my  best  wishes 
for  the  success  of  the  Celebration. 

Yours  respectfully, 

C.  Delano. 


APPENDIX.  169 

Post  Office  DEPAnTMKNT, 
Washington,  D.  C,  Nov.  17th,  1870. 
William  T.  Davis,  Esq. 

Deau  Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowleelge  the  receipt  of 
your  invitation  to  attend  the  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth, 
and  to  return  you  my  thanks.  It  is  a  source  of  much  regret  that 
official  duties  will  oblige  me  to  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  being 
present  on  that  interesting  occasion. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

J.  A.  J.  Creswell. 


Department  of  Justice, 

Washington,  Dec.  6th,  1870. 
William  T.  Davis,  Esq.,  and  others.  Committee  of  Arrangements  of  the 
Pilgrim  Society,  Plymouth,  Mass. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  have  received,  through  Governor  Boutwell,  an 
invitation  to  your  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth 
Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  on  Wed- 
nesday the  21st. 

It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  participate  in  the  celebration 
of  so  interesting  an  anniversary,  —  interesting  both  on  account  of 
the  character  of  the  men  who  landed  at  Plymouth  in  1620,  and  of 
the  important  influence  of  that  character  in  forming  the  literature, 
the  politics,  and  the  morals  of  the  continent.  But  the  necessity  of 
being  in  Georgia  at  that  time,  if  permitted  by  my  duties  to  be  ab- 
sent from  the  capital,  will  deny  me  the  pleasure  of  accepting  your 
invitation. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

Amos  T.  Akerman. 
— « — 

War  Department, 
Washington,  Nov.  17,  1870. 

Sir,  —  Please  express  to  the  members  of  your  Committee  my 
thanks  for  their  invitation  to  the  Celebration  of  the  Pilgrim  Society 
on  the  21st  December,  and  ray  regret  that  other  engagements  will 
interfere  with  its  acceptance. 

Veiy  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Wm.  W.  Belknap, 

Secretary  of  War. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 

22 


170  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

United  States  Senate  Chamber, 
Washington,  Dec.  12th,  1870. 
Hon.  WiLMAM  T.  Davis. 

My  dear  Siu,  - —  It  is  with  great  regret  that  I  have  to  reply  to 
your  kind  invitation  to  attend  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anni- 
versary of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  by  saying  that  the  pressure 
of  engagements  here  will  not  permit  me  to  be  present.  My  reply 
would  have  been  made  at  an  earlier  date,  had  not  my  anxiety  to  be 
with  you  on  that  occasion  led  me  to  delay,  in  the  hope  that  I  would 
be  able  to  participate  in  your  meeting,  and  pay,  in  person,  my 
tribute  to  the  venerable  men  and  women  who  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  glory  of  New  England. 

Wherever  the  law  is  respected,  justice  administered,  civilization 
advancing,  there  are  the  sons  of  New  England ;  and  as,  with  the 
westward  course  of  empire,  they  climb  the  mountains  and  traverse 
the  plains,  they  cast  ever  a  longing  look  of  tender  remembrance 
towards  the  ancient  seat.  And  it  would  have  been  especially 
agreeable  to  me,  had  it  been  possible,  to  be  with  you,  and  assure 
you  of  the  respect  which  New  England  men  in  the  "West  cherish 
for  their  birthplace ;  hoyr  proudly  they  claim  a  share  of  its  renown, 
and  how  anxiously  they  watch  the  course  of  its  scholars  and  states- 
men in  the  progress  of  public  affairs,  for  their  inspiration  and  guid- 
ance. 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours. 

Matt.  H.  Carpenter. 


Washington,  D.  C,  Dec.  19th,  1870. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  had,  until  Saturday,  expected  to  attend  the 
memorial  services  to  be  held  at  Plymouth,  on  the  21st  inst.,  to 
which  you  have  honored  me  with  an  invitation  ;  but  I  now  find  I 
shall  be  held  here  by  unavoidable  public  duties. 

I  regret  this  exceedingly,  as  I  had  anticipated  a  gathering  of 
gentlemen  worthy  of  the  men  whose  advent  to  these  shores  they 
propose  to  celebrate,  and  whom  it  would  be  a  pleasure  to  me  to 
meet. 

But  I  am  sui'e  the  whole  body  of  Pilgrims  would  rise  up  against 
me,  should  I  neglect  a  service  due  to  the  living,  to  pay  a  tribute  of 
homage  and  gratitude  to  the  dead.  The  distinguishing  peculiarity 
of  the  Pilgrims  was  their  unswerving  loyalty  to  duty.     In  this  was 


APPENDIX.  171 

their  pre-eminence  over  other  emigrants  of  their  or  preceding  ages. 
It  was  this  which  gave  permanence  and  final  success  to  the  Colony. 

If  they  had  been  more  skilled  in  state  craft,  and  less  in  the  creed 
of  a  faith  which  recognized  tlie  individual  responsibility  of  man,  the 
simple  polity  of  their  church  would  never  have  become  the  basis  of 
the  pure  democracy  of  our  town  governments,  which  by  combina- 
tion developed  into  the  representative  governments  of  the  State  and 
the  Nation.  The  creed  which  held  each  responsible  to  God  for  his 
acts  made  liberty  in  the  State  as  essential  as  in  the  Church,  and 
demanded  universal  education  as  a  right  springing  from  man's 
responsibility. 

But  the  highest  fruit  of  their  ftiith  was  character.  Constant 
meditation  upon  divine  truths  imparted  an  elevation  to  their  lives 
which  prepared  them  to  meet  and  surmount  the  perils  and  hardships 
th-ey  encountered,  and  to  hand  down  those  transcendent  qualities 
which  have  sustained  and  inspired  their  descendants  through  all  the 
events  of  our  unparalleled  history.  The  sentiments  of  the  Pilgrims 
have  left  an  imperishable  impress  upon  our  national  institutions 
and  character. 

God  grant  that  they  may  not  cease  to  be  held  in  grateful  remem- 
brance by  their  children  till  their  virtues  shall  cease  to  ennoble  our 
national  life. 

With  thanks  for  your  kind  remembrance,  and  regrets  that  I  can- 
not be  with  you, 

I  am,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  W.  Patterson. 


HoRNELLSviLLE,  N.  Y.,  28th  Nov.  1870. 

Mt  dear  Sir,  —  Your  two  favors  havB  followed  me  to  this 
place,  where  I  am  for  a  day.  It  is  with  great  regret  that  I  abandon 
the  opportunity  with  which  you  honor  me.  But  my  engagements 
at  Washington  make  it  impossible  for  me  to  be  with  you  on  the 
Pilgrim  Anniversary.  The  Senate  will  then  be  in  session,  and  I 
never  allow  myself  to  leave  my  seat  under  any  temptation.  In 
this  fidelity  I  try  to  imitate  the  Pilgrims. 

Faithfully  yours, 

Charles  Sumner. 
lion.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


172  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

"Wasiiinotox,  Not.  22,  1870. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  did  my  best  to  secure  for  you  the  attendance  of 

the  President.     You  will   learn  from  his  answer,  when  it  comes, 

that  it  has  been  done  in  vain. 

I  should  be  glad  to  go  myself,  if  it  were  possible  to  get  away 

from  Washington  at  that  time,  of  which  there  is  no  hope. 

Truly  youi's, 

J.  C.  B.  Davis. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


Headquarters  Army  of  the  United  States, 
Washington,  D.  C,  Nov.  19,  1870. 

W.  T.  Davis,  Esq.,  Plymouth,  Mass. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  your  very  friendly  letter  of  November  15, 
and  assure  you  of  my  sense  of  the  extreme  honor  you  design  for  me, 
in  connection  with  the  j^roposed  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundred 
and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on 
"  Plymouth  Rock."  I  don't  see  how  I  can  possibly  come  ;  for  I 
must  go  to  an  army  meeting,  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  next  week,  and 
have  also  particularly  promised  to  attend  the  New  England  dinner 
at  Delmonico's,  New  York,  on  the  22d  of  December  next.  I  have 
not  yet  seen  the  President,  and  don't  know  what  answer  has  been 
sent ;  but  it  seems  to  me  he  can  hardly  spare  the  time  at  that 
season  of  the  year.  Should  he,  however,  agree  to  go  to  Plymouth, 
and  should  he  request  me  to  go  along,  I  would  construe  it  in  the 
nature  of  an  obligation  that  would  release  me  from  the  prior  prom- 
ise to  be  with  the  New  England  Society  of  New  York.  Though 
not  a  native  of  New  England,  I  always  remember  that  both  my 
parents  were  born  at  Norwalk,  Connecticut,  and  shall  ever  cherish 
their  memory  and  virtues.  This  may  entitle  me  to  full  fellowship 
with  the  New  England  Societies,  though  from  association  I  usually 
claim  affiliation  with  the  Broad  Field  of  the  Great  West,  with 
which  my  associations  have  been  more  intimate  and  more  closely 
identified.  If  in  life,  however,  I  can  blend  all  parts  of  our 
Union  into  the  hearty  fellowship  which  a  common  nationality,  com- 
mon history,  and  a  common  destiny  have  decreed,  I  surely  will 
attempt  it. 

Every  thing  you  have  written  begets  a  desire  to  be  present,  and 
witness  so  interesting  an  occasion  ;  but  I  fear  the  chances  ai'e  against 


APPENDIX.  173 

me.  I  am  none  the  less  obliged  to  you  for  the  cordial  manner  in 
which  you  have  invited  me  to  accept  the  hospitalities  of  Plymouth 
during  the  commemoration  of  the  Two  Iluudred  and  Fiftieth  Anni- 
versary of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

With  great  respect,  &c., 

W.  T.  Sherman,   Genl 


Washington,  D.  C,  Dec.  6,  1870. 
Wm.  T.  Davis,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  certainly  admire  your  perseverance,  and  only 
regret  that  for  the  display  of  this  virtue  you  have  so  indifferent  a 
subject.  You  surely  have  been  most  kind,  and  are  entitled  to  my 
heartiest  thanks ;  but  still  I  remain  of  the  opinion  that  it  would  be 
improper  for  me  to  attempt  so  much.  Let  me  repeat.  I  must 
attend  here,  during  the  night  of  Monday  the  19th,  a  ball  given  for 
the  benefit  of  the  poor,  of  which  Mrs.  Sherman  is  a  patroness,  and 
I  am  announced  as  a  manager.  I  must  leave  early  next  morning, 
the  2.0th,  for  Philadelphia,  to  attend  the  grand  opening,  that  eve- 
ning, of  Rothermell's  pictui-e  of  Gettysburg,  in  compliment  to,  and 
by  earnest  invitation  of.  General  Meade.  If  I  am  to  accept  your 
invitation,  I  would  have  to  hurry  away,  in  order  to  reach  Plymouth 
by  noon  of  the  21st ;  then,  at  5,  p.m.,  hurry  away  to  get  to  Boston 
in  time  for  the  train  for  New  York,  where,  on  the  22d,  I  would  have 
to  dine  out,  and  go  straight  to  the  New  England  dinner,  at  Del- 
monico's,  at  9,  p.m.  Now  I  leave  it  to  you,  if  flesh  and  blood, 
weakened  by  fifty  years'  hard  work,  ought  to  be  taxed  in  that  style  ; 
and  would  I  not  be  likely  to  reach  the  feast  of  the  wits  of  New 
York  a  dull  guest? 

I  must  again  ask  your  kind  indulgence  to  spare  me  such  a  race 
after  pleasure ;  for  I  know  you  respect  me  too  highly  to  wish  me 
to  attempt  what  would  be  hard  work,  instead  of  a  personal  gratifica- 
tion to  myself  or  to  my  friends. 

I  hope  I  may  live  for  another  occasion,  when  it  would  be  a  real 
treat  to  stand  among  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  upon 
the  very  spot  which  they  hallowed  by  their  steps. 
With  great  respect. 

Your  friend, 

W.  T.  Sherman,   General. 


174  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

LowKLL,  Nov.  18,  1870. 
My  dear  Mr.  Davis,  —  Pity  me!  I  am  obliged  to  attend  a 
meeting  of  the  Board  of  JNIanagers  of  the  National  Asylum,  on  the 
19th,  at  Washington,  which  will  last  for  three  days,  so  that  I  cannot 
help  to  commemorate  the  Pilgrims ;  but  I  will  do  all  I  can  to 
induce  the  President  to  go,  although,  it  being  just  before  the  holi- 
days, I  have  not  much  hope  of  my  efforts. 

Yours  truly, 

Benj.  F.  Butler. 
Mr.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  Plymouth,  Mass. 


Washington,  Dec.  10,  1870. 
Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  an  invita- 
tion to  attend  the  Pilgrim  Society's  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundred 
and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Ply- 
mouth, Dec.  21,  1870.  It  is  scarcely  probable  that  I  shall  be 
able  to  leave  Washington  at  that  time ;  but  should  it  be  in  my 
power  to  do  so,  I  shall  esteem  it  a  great  pleasure  to  participate  in 
the  celebration  of  the  great  event  which  it  is  proposed  thus  to 
honor. 

Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

N.  P.  Banks. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


Washington,  D.  C,  Dec.  1,  1870. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  earnestly  hoped  that  I  should  be  able 
to   accept  your  invitation  to  attend    the   meeting  of  the   Pilgrim 
Society  of  Plymouth,  on  the  21st  of  December;   but  I  find  that 
it  will  not  be  possible  for  me  to  do  so. 

The  thought  of  meeting  that  Society,  to  aid  in  celebrating  the 
Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims,  was  so  agreeable  to  me,  that  it  has  been  with  difficulty 
that  I  am  compelled  to  abandon  it. 

Please  present  my  regrets  to  the   Society,  and  accept  for  them 
and  for  yourself  my  thanks  for  their  kind  invitation. 
Very  truly  yours, 

J.  A.  Garfield. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


APPENDIX.  175 


British  Legation, 
Washington,  Nov.  18,  1870. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  Ch. 

Sir  Edward  Thornton  presents  his  compliments  to  the  Committee 
of  Arrangements  of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  and  begs  to  express  his 
regret  that  he  fears  it  will  be  out  of  liis  power  to  avail  himself  of 
their  kind  invitation  for  the  21st  of  December  next ;  for  it  is  at  a 
time  of  the  year  when  his  official  duties  render  it  very  difficult  for 
him  to  absent  himself  from  Washington. 


State  of  Maine  Executive  Department, 
Augusta,  Dec.  17,  1870. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  On  receiving  your  letters,  which  had  followed 
my  track  for  some  time,  I  wrote  you  a  hurried  letter  last  evening, 
saying  that  I  thought  it  doubtful  if  I  could  manage  to  be  with  you 
at  Plymouth.  Looking  at  the  business  which  now  opens,  and  the 
imperative  engagements  which  unfold  to  claim  every  moment  of  the 
closing  year,  I  still  find  it  doubtful,  if  not  impossible.  I  have 
unavoidable  engagements  of  a  public  nature  on  the  day  before 
and  day  after  the  21st,  and  it  would  drive  me  fast  and  far  to  at- 
tempt to  reach  you  and  get  back.  I  will  still  continue,  however,  to 
examine  the  situation,  and  will  write  again  Monday  morning. 
With  many  thanks  and  hearty  sympathy, 

Yours, 

J.  L.  Chamberlain. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


State  of  Rhode  Island  Executive  Department, 
Providence,  Dec.  2,  1870. 

Gentlemen,  —  Your  cordial  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  Two 
Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
at  Plymouth,  Dec.  21,  1870,  is  at  hand.     I  regret  to  say,  engage- 
ments will  prevent  my  acceptance  thereof. 
Very  respectfully, 

Y^'our  obedient  servant, 

Seth  Padelford. 
H^on.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  and  others, 
Plymouth,  Mass. 


176  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Office  of  the 
"North  American  and  United  States  Gazette," 
132  Soutli  Tliird  Street, 

PlIILADELl'HIA,    DcC.  17,  1870. 

My  deau  Sik,  —  I  have  delayed  my  final  answer  to  your 
several  kind  invitations,  in  the  hopes  that  I  might  see  my  way  clear 
to  be  with  you  on  the  occasion  of  your  intended  Celebration ;  but 
this  I  now  fear  will  be  impossible.  In  addition  to  the  obstacles  I 
have  already  mentioned,  there  are  others,  with  the  particulars  of 
which  I  need  not  trouble  you,  that  will  effectually  prevent  my 
leaving  here  in  time  to  reach  Plymouth  on  the  21st  inst.  I  regret 
this  most  sincerely. 

If  you  should  ever  have  occasion  to  come  to  Philadelphia,  I  trust 
you  will  give  me  the  opportunity  of  showing  you  in  person  how 
fully  I  appreciate  the  courtesy  you  have  shown  in  this  matter ;  and 
in  the  mean  while, 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

Morton  McMichael. 
Wm.  T.  Davis,  Esq. 

— ♦— 

Philadelphia,  Nov.  28th,  1870. 
Wm.  T.  Davis,  and  others, 

Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Gentlemen,  —  Your  invitation  for  Wednesday,  December  21st, 
is  received.  I  should  take  much  pleasure  in  being  present ;  but  I 
fear  that  ray  engagements  will  prevent  my  leaving  home  at  that 
time. 

Thanking  you  most  cordially  for  your  kind  invitation, 
I  am  very  truly  yours, 

Jay  Cooke. 


St.  Louis,  30  Nov.,  1870. 
To  the  Committee  of  the  Pilgrim  Society  of  Plymouth,  Mass. :  — 

Your  invitation  to  the  President  of  the  New  England  Society  of 
St.  Louis,  to  meet  you  on  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary 
of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  is  recorded.  I  see  you  change  your 
Celebration  to  the  21st  of  December.  Throughout  the  West  the 
2  2d  of  December  is  looked  upon  as  the  proper  day,  and  probably 
we  shall  have  a  celebration  here  on  the  22d  of  December,  which 


APPENDIX.  177 

will  prevent  my  attendance.  Thanking  you  for  the  invitation,  I 
would  inquire  the  reason  for  changing  the  day,  although  we  may 
not  be  able  to  conform  to  it. 

Yours, 

George  Partridge,  President. 


New  York,  Dec.  4,  1870. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  am  chagrined  to  be  unexpectedly  called  upon, 
by  a  parochial  necessity,  to  recall  my  engagement  to  be  present  at 
the  Pilgrim  Celebration  in  Plymouth,  on  the  21st  instant. 

The  marriage  of  one  of  the  daughters  of  a  very  old  and  valued 
member  of  my  society  takes  place  on  that  day ;  and,  as  her  pastor,  I 
must  give  up  every  outside  gratification  to  meet  her  natural  desire 
for  my  nuptial  benediction.  I  assure  you  that  it  is  with  special  pain 
that  I  withdraw  a  promise  from  the  fulfilment  of  which  I  had  an- 
ticipated so  much  pleasure.  Please  regard  me  not  as  inconstant, 
but  only  as  unfortunate  in  not  being  able  to  be  in  two  agreeable 
places  at  the  same  time.  One  advantage  will  accrue  to  you :  you 
will  now  have  ten  minutes  to  give  to  some  other  son  of  New  Eng- 
land bursting  with  the  desire  to  honor  his  Fathers  at  the  expense  of 
other  people's  patience. 

With  cordial  regard  and  best  wishes  for  the  entire  prosperity 
of  your  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary,  I  am  your  obliged 
and  disappointed  friend  and  servant, 

Henry  W.  Bellows. 


Boston,  Nov.  28th,  1870. 
My  dear  Sir, — I  am  very  much  obliged  by  your  second  note 
of  the  22d,  but  unfortunately  I  am  engaged  also  upon  the  "  true  day." 
But  you  will  not  miss  my  little  rill  of  talk  in  your  Niagara  of  elo- 
quence. 

Very  truly  yours, 

George  William  Curtis. 

Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 

— * — 

52  Wall  St.,  New  York. 
Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  received  your  invitations  to  myself  person- 
ally and  to  the  President  of  the  New  England  Society  to  attend  the 
great  Celebration  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  on  the 

23 


178  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

21st  of  December ;  and  also  your  note  of  November  19tb,  promising 
to  get  me  buck  to  New  Yoi'k  on  the  22d.  I  feel  very  grateful  for 
your  kindness  and  that  of  tlie  Committee,  and  wish  it  might  be  pos- 
sible for  me  to  come  to  Plymouth  to  attend  the  Celebration  ;  but  our 
Society  in  New  York,  ambitious  to  do  its  part  on  so  noted  an  anni- 
versary, has  made  preparations  for  an  oration  on  the  evening  of  the 
21st,  and  a  dinner  on  the  evening  of  the  22d  ;  and  as  Mr.  Emerson 
has  consented  to  come  and  deliver  the  oration,  I  feel  in  duty  bound 
to  be  here  and  attend  that.  I  must,  therefore,  with  many  thanks, 
decline  your  flattering  invitation.  I  am  happy  to  think,  however, 
that  our  Society  will  be  represented  at  your  Celebration  by  some  of 
its  most  honored  members. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Joseph  H.  Choate. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 

Will  you  please  express  to  the  Committee  my  thanks,  and  my 
very  great  regret  at  being  compelled  to  decline  their  invitation. 


New  York  Tribune, 
New  York,  Dec.  6th,  1870. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  very  busy,  and  not  very  well,  so  I  do  not  see 
how  I  can  go  to  Plymouth. 

Yours, 

Horace  Greeley. 


RosLTN,  Long  Island,  Nov.  14tli,  1870. 
Dear  Sir,  —  I  beg  through  you  to  thank  the  Committee  of  Ar- 
rangements, of  which  you  are  Chairman,  for  the  invitation  with  which 
they  have  honored  me,  to  be  present  at  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth 
Anniversary  of  the  landing  of  my  ancestors,  the  Pilgrims,  at  Ply- 
mouth. Owing  to  various  reasons,  I  must  forego  the  pleasure  of 
attending.     I  am,  sir, 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

W.  C.  Bryant. 
W.  T.  Davis,  Esq. 


APPENDIX.  179 

New  York,  Dec.  10th,  1870. 
My  dear  Mr.  Davis,  —  I  have  delayed  answering  your  kind 
note  of  the  1st  inst.  until  it  should  appear  distinctly  whether  I 
might  not  be  able  to  come  on  to  Plymouth  to  your  approaching  Cele- 
bration, as  I  should  be  glad  to  do.  I  find,  now,  that  it  is  out  of  the 
question  for  me  to  count  upon  being  able  to  leave  my  professional 
engagements  liei-e  for  the  i^roposed  visit.  I  am  sorry  to  lose  Mr. 
Winthrop's  oration,  and  the  festivities  of  the  occasion.  I  remember 
with  much  pleasure  my  former  visit  to  Plymouth,  and  with  my 
thanks  for  the  remembrance  of  the  Committee, 
I  am  yours  very  truly, 

Wm.  M.  Evarts. 
W.  T.  DAvrs,  Esq. 


Yale  College,  New  Haven,  Ct., 
Nov.  23d,  1870. 
Wm.  T.  Davis,  Esq.,  and  others. 

Gentlemen,  —  My  engagements  will  probably  be  sucli  that  I 
shall  be  unable  to  spare  the  time  to  be  present  at  the  Anniversary  of 
the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  as  celebrated  by  the  Pilgrim  Society 
at  Plymouth. 

Accept  my  thanks  for  your  hospitable  invitation,  and  believe  me, 
gentlemen,  to  be, 

Yours  gratefully, 

Theodore  D.  Woolsey. 


Boston,  Dec.  10th,  1870. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  courteous 
invitation  of  the  Pilgrim  Society  to  attend  their  Celebration  at  Ply- 
mouth, on  Wednesday,  the  21st  inst.,  and  to  express  ray  regret  that 
I  fear  my  engagements  will  not  permit  me  to  be  present  with  them 
on  so  interesting  an  occasion. 

Very  respectfully, 

E.  R.  Hoar. 


Boston,  Dec.  19th,  1870. 
Hon.  William  T.  Davis. 

Dear  Sir,  —  A  case  of  bereavement,  just  announced  to  me  in  a 

telegram,  will  prevent  my  attendance  at  the  commemoration  festival 

to  be  held  at  Plymouth  on  "Wednesday  next ;  as,  on  the  same  day, 

in  an  adjacent  State,  and  by  the  express  desire  of  a  highly  esteemed 


180  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

friend,  now  luippily  released  by  death  from  excruciating  suffering, 
and  an  incurable  malady,  I  am  to  participate  in  the  funeral  rites 
demanded  by  the  occasion.  My  absence,  however,  will  not  be 
missed  in  so  large  a  company  as  will  be  gathered  to  pay  their  hom- 
age to  the  memory  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers  and  mothers  of  1620  ;  and 
my  presence  could  add  notliing  to  the  significance  of  the  occasion. 
The  disappointment  will  be  simply  personal  to  myself.  Nor  should 
I  think  of  stating  to  you  the  cause  of  my  non-appearance,  were  it 
not  for  my  acceptance  of  the  invitation  so  kindly  extended  to  me  by 
yourself  in  behalf  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

It  was  in  support  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  that  the  Pilgrims  of 
the  "  Mayflower  "  encountered  the  most  formidable  dangers  and  made 
the  most  heroic  sacrifices  ;  their  trust  in  God  absolute,  their  rever- 
ence for  his  laws  unbounded,  their  assertion  of  the  rights  of  con- 
science fearless  and  uncompromising.  However  at  variance  with 
their  spirit  and  object  was  the  conduct  of  others  who  came  to  these 
shores  afterward,  and  with  whom  they  have  been  too  often  igno- 
rantly  and  unjustly  confounded,  they  made  good  their  professions  by 
their  lives,  and  continued  faithful  to  the  end.  In  this  they  deserve 
to  be  applauded,  and,  better  still,  to  be  imitated.  But  no  commemora- 
tion of  their  w^orth  is  deserving  of  record  which  is  not  inspired  by  a 
noble  purpose  to  draw  from  their  example  incentives  to  higher 
aspirations,  and  a  broader  recognition  of  human  rights  than  has  yet 
been  attained  even  in  our  land. 

"  We,  who  are  the  seed 
Of  buried  creatures,  if  we  turned  and  spat 
Upon  our  antecedents,  we  were  vile. 
Bring  violets,  rather !     If  these  had  not  walked 
Their  furlong,  could  we  hope  to  walk  our  mile  ? 
Therefore,  bring  violets  !     Yet,  if  we,  self-balked, 
Stand  still,  a  strewing  violets  all  the  while. 
These  moved  in  vain  of  whom  we've  vainly  talked. 
So  rise  up  henceforth  with  a  cheerful  smile. 
And  having  reaped  the  violets,  reap  the  corn. 
And  having  reaped  and  garnered,  bring  the  plough, 
And  draw  new  furrows  'neath  the  healthy  morn, 
And  plant  the  great  Hereafter  in  this  Now. 

O  Dead,  ye  shall  no  longer  cling  to  us 
With  rigid  hands  of  dessicating  praise. 
And  drag  us  backward  by  the  garment  thus, 
To  stand  and  laud  you  in  long-drawn  virelays ; 
We  will  not  henceforth  be  oblivious 
Of  our  own  lives  because  ye  lived  before, 


APPENDIX.  181 

Nor  of  our  acts  because  ye  acted  well. 

We  thank  you  that  ye  first  unlatched  the  door, 

But  will  not  make  it  inaccessible 

By  thankings  on  the  thresholds  any  more. 

We  hurry  onward  to  extinguish  hell 

With  our  fresh  souls,  our  younger  hope,  and  God's 

Maturity  of  purpose.     Soon  shall  we 

Die  also ;   and  that  then  our  periods 

Of  life  may  round  themselves  to  memory, 

As  smoothly  as  on  our  graves  the  burial  sods, 

We  now  must  look  to  it  to  excel  as  ye, 

And  bear  our  age  as  far,  imlimited 

By  the  last  mind  mark ;  so  to  be  invoked 

By  future  generations  as  their  dead !  " 

Animated  by  considerations  like  these,  we  can  alone  be  justified 
in  observing  the  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  band  at 
Plymouth  Rock. 

Yours  for  constant  progress, 

Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison. 

P.  S.  —  If  I  were  present  at  your  commemorative  dinner,  I  could 
offer  no  sentiment  more  in  accordance  with  my  own  mind,  or  more 
appropriate  to  the  occasion,  than  is  contained  in  the  following  lines 
by  Lowell :  — 

"  New  occasions  teach  new  duties ;  time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth ; 
They  must  upward  still  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of  Truth. 
Lo  !  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires !  we  ourselves  must  Pilgrims  be, 
Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate  winter  sea. 
Nor  attempt  the  Future's  portal  with  the  Past's  blood-rusted  key." 


Boston,  Dec.  7,  1870. 
I  have  delayed  replying  to  your  kind  invitation  till  the  present 
time  in  the  hope  that  I  might  be  able  to  accept  it.     But  I  find  that 
my  official  engagements  are  such  that  I  am  very  reluctantly  com- 
pelled to  forego  that  pleasure. 

Yours  very  respectfully  and  truly, 

R.  A.  Chapman. 

Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 

— ♦ — 

Salem,  Nov.  12,  1870. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis, 

Chairman  of  Committee  of  Arrangements. 
Dear  Sir,  —  I   beg  you    to   express   to  your    Committee  my 
thanks  for  the  invitation  you  have  conveyed  to  me.     No  occasion 


182  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

could  have  stronger  attractions  to  me  tlian  the  Celebration,  on  Dec.  21, 
1870,  at  Plymouth,  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  A  very  severe 
illness,  from  w^hich  I  am  appearing  slowly  to  recover,  will,  at  the 
best,  leave  me  in  a  state  that  will  forbid  me  leaving  home,  this 
winter,  for  any  distance. 

Please  to  express  my  regrets  to  your  associates ;  and  believe  me, 
as  ever. 

Yours  most  affectionately, 

Charles  W.  Upham. 
— « — 

Worcester,  Dec.  1,  1870. 
Gentlemen,  —  Your  kind  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  Cele- 
bration of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  has  remained  unanswered 
until  now,  in  the  hope  that  I  might  see  my  way  to  accept  the 
honor.  But  I  regret  that  the  necessity  of  my  being  absent  from 
the  State  at  that  time  will  compel  me  to  forego  the  pleasure  I 
otherwise  should  have  in  being  with  you  on  an  occasion  so  laden 
with  tender  and  solemn  thoughts, 

I  remain,  with  profound  respect. 

Very  truly  your  ob't  serv't, 

Alex.  H.  Bullock. 


Boston,  Dec.  20,  1870. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  received  your  invitation,  and  should  have 
replied,  but  from  its  form  supposed  that  a  reply,  unless  in  the 
affirmative,  was  not  expected ;  and  as  I  knew  very  well  that  I 
should  be  busy  winding  up  matters  preparatory  to  a  session  at  the 
State  House,  I  did  not  write. 

I  thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  remembrance  of  me,  and 
regret  that  I  cannot  be  present  on  an  occasion  which  I  know  will 
be  most  enjoyable  to  all  concerned. 

Yours  truly, 

H.    H.    COOLEDGE. 


Boston,  Dec.  20th,  1870. 
Wm.  T.  Davis. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your 
recent  and  former  note.  With  the  pressure  of  professional  engage- 
ments upon  me,  especially  since  my  partner,  Mr.  Gaston,  has  been 
elected  Mayoi',  and  so  rendered  unable  to  attend  to  business,  I  have 


APPENDIX.  183 

doubted  whether  I  could  be  at  Plymouth,  and  at  this  hour  I  cannot 
certainly  say  I  can  get  away  ;  but  I  hope  to  be  with  you,  and  make 
my  excuses  in  person"  for  my  negligence.  I  hope  I  can  get  away. 
If  not,  accept  my  thanks  for  your  kindness,  and  permit  me  to  sub- 
scribe myself, 

Yours  very  truly, 

H.  Jewell. 
— « — 

Harvard  College,  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  Dec.  8,  1870. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  received,  some  time  since,  a  kind  invitation  to 
attend  the  Pilgrim  Celebration  ;  and  now  Professor  Goodwin  has 
given  me  a  message  on  the  subject.  My  duties  and  engagements 
are  so  pressing  that  I  find  it  quite  impossible  to  undertake  other 
labors  or  pleasures  which  are  not  near  at  hand.  I  am  sorry  that  I 
must  lose  the  pleasure  of  participating  in  this  festival. 
Very  truly  yours, 

Charles  W.  Eliot. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


Cambridge,  Nov.  19,  1870. 
Gentlemen,  —  I  have  had  the  honor  of  receiving  your  invita- 
tion to  be  present  at  the  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary 
of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  regret  that  it  will  not  be  in 
my  power  to  accept  it.  Permit  me  to  thank  you  for  this  mark  of 
your  regard,  and  believe  me. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Henrt  W.  Longfellow. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  and  others, 

Committee  of  Arrangements. 


Attorney  General's  Office, 
Boston,  Dec.  5th,  1870.. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  am  sorry  to  find  that  I  shall  not  be  able  to 
attend  the  Celebration  to  which  you  have  kindly  invited  me.  With 
thanks  for  your  courtesy, 

I  am  very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Charles  Allen. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  and  others. 

Committee  of  Arranaements. 


184  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

MiDULEBORO',  Dec.  14,  1870. 
To  Wm.  T.  Davis,  and  otliers,  Committee. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  very  much  regret  that  I  shall  be  unable  to 
comply  with  your  kind  invitation  to  be  with  you  on  the  21st  inst. 
I  am  very  truly  yours, 

Wm.  li.  Wood. 


Boston,  Nov.  17,  1870. 
My  dear  Sir,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  be  at 
Plymouth  on  December  21st,  but  I  am  compelled  to  forego  the 
pleasure  I  should  take  in  being  present,  owing  to  a  positive  engage- 
ment for  that  evening  in  this  city. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  M.  Manning. 


Weston,  Dec.  19,  1870. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  et  als. 

Duties  which  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to  postpone  will  prevent 

my  being  present  at  the  Celebration,  next  Wednesday,  as  I  had 

before  anticipated ;  though  in  heart  and  spirit  I  shall  be  with  you 

in  honoring  the  memory  of  the  Pilgrim  ancestors ;  who,  with  such 

toil   and   sacrifice,  "  kindled    the    light,"  to   use  Bradford's  figure, 

"  which  hath  shone  to  our  whole  Nation,  as  one  small  candle  may 

light  a  thousand." 

Yours  sincerely, 

E.  H.  Sears. 


Cambridge,  Dec.  18,  1870. 
Gentlemen,  —  I   am   greatly   obliged   by   the   honor   of  your 
invitation  to  the  approaching  Celebration  of  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims. 

I  count  on  being  at  Plymouth  on  that  occasion ;  but,  as  it  must 
depend   on    the  weather  and  other   circumstances,    I    respectfully 
request  that  I  may  not  be  considered  in  your  arrangements. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  Gentlemen, 

Your  obliged  and  humble  servant, 

John  G.  Palfrey. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  and  others. 

Committee  of  Arrangements. 


AITF.NDIX.  185 

Niiw  BiiDFORi),  Dec.  10th,  1870. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  gratefully  acknowledge  the  courtesy  of  the 
Connnittee  having  iu  charge  the  Two  Hundretl  and  Fiftieth  Anni- 
versary of  the  great  Settlement  of  1G20,  contained  in  their  invitation 
to  participate  in  the  duties  and  pleasures  of  this  commemoration. 

I  had  hoped  to  see  some  way  to  snatch  that  day  from  business, 
and  have  delayed  this  acknowledgment  for  that  cause.  But  I  shall 
be  obliged  to  spend  the  day  in  official  duties  in  court,  unless  Judge 
Scudder  should  think  that  on  such  a  day  no  court  ought  to  sit  in  the 
Old  Colony.  For  it  would  well  suit  the  spirit  of  the  day,  if  within 
the  territorial  limits  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  all  business  should  be 
suspended  on  that  occasion,  and  the  time  be  given  up  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  grandest  event  in  history. 

Very  truly  yours, 

Geo.  Marston. 
Hon.  Wm.  T.  Davis,  Chairman,  &c. 


Salem,  December  17th,  1870. 
Gentlemen,  —  Your  communication,  inviting  me"  to  be  present  at 
tiie  Two  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  has  been  received.  I  am  grateful  to  you  for 
the  opportunity  you  have  offered  me  to  take  part  in  the  interesting 
ceremonies  of  the  occasion  ;  and  I  regret,  more  than  I  can  express, 
that  an  engagement  to  speak  in  New  York,  which  cannot  be  post- 
poned, will  prevent  my  enjoying  the  privilege  you  have  extended  to 
me.  The  suggestion  of  your  chairman,  Mr.  Davis,  that  I  should 
say  something  "  in  connection  with  the  Essex  settlement,"  has  filled 
me  with  a  sense  of  the  obligation  I  am  under  to  connect  the  locality 
in  which  I  reside  with  a  memorial  service  intended  to  perpetuate 
the  memory  of  events  in  which  Plymouth  and  Essex  were  mutually 
engaged  in  the  early  heroic  days  of  our  country.  The  story,  I  know, 
is  familiar.  Roger  Conant,  standing  as  a  sentinel  of  Puritanism  on 
the  clitrs  of  Cape  Ann,  and  John  Endicott,  obedient  to  the  call  of 
his  great  predecessor  on  this  north  shore,  entered  upon  a  service  here 
which  gave  strength  and  courage  to  the  Carvers  and  Bradfords  of 
Plymouth,  who  had  already  given  to  the  encircling  shore  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  the  blessed  reputation  of  a  protecting  arm  for  high  re- 
ligious purpose,  a  firm  and  abiding  faith,  a  stern  conscience,  and  the 
right  of  all  men  to  enter  God's  holy  church  and  share  in  the  honors 
and  responsibilities  of  a  Christian  State. 

2:1 


186  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

In  tliis  great  work,  it  was  given  to  Plymouth,  indeed,  to  lead  the  » 
way.  The  path  which  her  Pilgrims  trod  from  England  to  Leyden, 
from  Leyden  to  Delft-Haven  and  Southampton,  and  thence  to  the 
shores  of  America,  will  be  traced  iu  all  coming  time,  with  fervid 
interest,  by  every  lover  of  the  divine  power  in  man.  To  all  the 
brave  and  thoughtful,  the  names  of  Robinson  and  ]iradford  and 
Carver  will  always  be  dear  ;  and  there  will  be  none  to  share  with 
them  the  immortal  honor  of  having  inspired  an  empire  of  freedom 
and  faith.  But  we,  who  occupy  this  soil  upon  which  John  Endicott,  "a 
fit  instrument  to  begin  this  wilderness  work,"  and  "the  excellent  and 
truly  Catholic  "  Francis  Higginson,  first  trod,  rejoice  over  Plymouth, 
as  children  in  the  honor  and  greatness  of  their  father,  and  claim  for 
oui'selves  a  share  in  the  great  inheritance.  We  love  to  remember 
the  mission  of  the  good  physician  of  Plymouth,  who,  when  our  an- 
cestors on  the  Naumkeag  side  were  broken  down  by  disease,  crossed 
the  Bay  and  landed  here  on  his  errand  of  mercy.  We  listen  to  the 
religious  discussion  between  this  messenger  of  kindness  and  Gov- 
ernor Endicott,  upon  predestination,  "  fixed  fate,  free  will,  and  fore- 
knowledge absolute  ;  "  upon  the  primitive  simplicity  of  Christianity  ; 
upon  the  aggressions  and  encroachments  of  Episcopacy  ;  and  perhaps 
upon  that  great  Puritan  Commonwealth  just  rising  into  existence, 
and  confirming  by  the  hardships  of  its  youth  those  qualities  which 
have  made  its  manhood  so  strong  and  triumphant.  We  recall,  as 
a  mutual  possession  for  Essex  and  Plymouth,  the  correspondence 
which  then  commenced  between  Governor  Endicott  and  Governor 
Bradford,  —  the  interchanging  thought  of  two  giant  minds  laden  with 
solemn  duties  and  responsibilities  for  their  own  genei'ation  and  for 
all  after  time.  And  by  the  side  of  Rose  Standish,  the  morning  and- 
the  evening  star  of  the  Pilgrims,  we  place  Arbella  Johnson,  the 
"  Flower  of  Lincoln,"  the  delicious  ornament  of  our  gloomy  Naum- 
keag settlement,  whose  life  was  the  light,  and  whose  death  was  the 
shadow,  which  first  fell  upon  our  colony ; "  and  of  each  of  whom  we 
may  say,  — 

"  The  saintly  faith  that  bore  her  soul 

Where  clouds  no  more  are  known, 
Save  by  the  fruits  their  tear-drops  helped 

To  ripen  round  the  throne,  — 
Yes,  that  pure  love,  that  hallowed  faith, 

Have  reared  above  her  clay 
Such  monument  and  epitaph 

As  may  not  wear  away." 


APPENDIX.  187 

To  us  the  memory  of  these  early  associations  of  our  ancestors, 
united  in  a  great  cause,  is  peculiarly  sacred ;  and  I  am  sure  that  I 
do  but  utter  the  sentiment  of  every  descendant  of  the  heroic  settlers 
of  Naumkeag,  and  the  feelings  of  all  our  citizens,  when  I  express 
the  gratitude  we  feel  that  the  "  Essex  settlement  "  may  share  the  i-e- 
nown  which  has  gathered  around  the  stern  and  devoted  purpose  of 
the  Plymouth  Colony.  For  the  courtesy  extended  to  them  and  to 
myself,  in  the  fraternal  suggestions  accompanying  your  invitation, 
allow  me  to  express  my  sincere  and  grateful  acknowledgments,  and 
I  doubt  not  theirs. 

Respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Geo.  B.  LoRiNfi. 
Hon.  W.M.  T.  Davis,  Wm.  H.  WiiixMAN,  Esq., 

Hon.  CiiAS.  G.  Davis,  and  others,  Committee,  Plymouth. 


Amesbury,  l'2tli  mo.  17th,  1870. 
Hon.  W.  T.  Davis,  and  others.  Committee. 

Gkntlemen, — I  regret  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  accept 
your  invitation  to  attend  the  Celebration  of  the  Two  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth. 
No  one  can  appreciate  more  highly  than  myself  the  noble  qualities 
of  the  men  and  women  of  the  "  Mayflower."  It  is  not  of  them  that  I, 
a  descendant  of  the  sect  called  "  Quakers,"  have  reason  to  complain 
in  the  matter  of  persecution.  A  generation  which  came  after  them, 
with  less  piety  and  more  bigotry,  is  especially  responsible  for  the 
little  unpleasantness  referred  to ;  and  the  sufferers  from  it  scarcely 
need  any  present  championship.  They  certainly  did  not  wait  alto- 
gether for  the  revenges  of  posterity.  If  they  lost  their  ears,  it  is 
satisfactory  to  remember  that  they  made  those  of  their  mutilators 
tingle  with  a  rhetoric  more  sharp  than  polite. 

A  worthy  New  England  deacon  once  described  a  brother  in  the 
church  as  a  very  good  man  God-ward,  but  rather  hard  mau-ward. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  some  very  satisfactory  steps  have  been 
taken  in  the  latter  direction,  at  least  since  the  days  of  the  Pilgrims. 
Our  age  is  tolerant  of  creed  and  dogma,  broader  in  its  sympathies, 
more  keenly  sensitive  to  temporal  need ;  and,  practically  recogniz- 
ing the  brotherhood  of  the  race,  wherever  a  cry  of  suffering  is  heard 
its  response  is  quick  and  generous.  It  has  abolished  slavery,  and 
is  lifting  women  from  world-old  degradation  to  equality  with  man 


188  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

before  tlie  law.  Our  crimiiuil  codes  no  longer  embody  the  muxim  of 
barbarism,  "  an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  but  have 
regard  not  only  to  the  safety  of  the  community,  but  to  the  reform 
and  well-being  of  the  criminal.  All  the  more,  however,  for  this 
amiable  tenderness  do  we  need  the  counterpoise  of  a  strong  sense  of 
justice.  With  our  sympathy  for  the  wrong-doer,  we  need  the  old 
Puritan  and  Quaker  hatred  of  wrong-doing ;  with  our  just  tolerance 
of  men  and  opinions,  a  righteous  abhorrence  of  sin.  All  the  more 
for  the  sweet  humanities  and  Christian  liberalism  which,  in  drawing 
men  nearer  to  each  other,  are  increasing  the  sum  of  social  influences 
for  good  or  evil,  we  need  the  bracing  atmosphere,  healthful  if 
austere,  of  the  old  moralities.  Individual  and  social  duties  are  quite 
as  imperative  now  as  when  they  were  minutely  specified  in  statute- 
books  and  enforced  by  penalties  no  longer  admissible.  It  is  well 
that  stocks,  whipping-post,  and  ducking-stool  are  now  only  matters 
of  tradition  ;  but  the  honest  reprobation  of  vice  and  crime  which 
they  symbolized  should  by  no  means  perish  with  them.  The  true 
life  of  a  nation  is  in  its  personal  morality,  and  no  excellence  of  con- 
stitution and  laws  can  avail  much  if  the  people  lack  purity  and 
integrity.  Culture,  art,  refinement,  care  for  our  own  comfort  and 
that  of  others,  are  well ;  but  truth,  honor,  reverence,  and  fidelity  to 
duty,  are  indispensable. 

The  Pilgrims  were  right  in  affirming  the  paramount  authority  of 
the  law  of  God.  If  they  erred  in  seeking  that  authoritative  law,  and 
passed  over  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  for  the  stern  Hebraisms  of 
Moses  ;  if  they  hesitated  in  view  of  the  largeness  of  Christian  liberty  ; 
if  they  seemed  unwilling  to  accept  the  sweetness  and  light  of  the 
Good  Tidings,  —  let  us  not  forget  that  it  was  the  mistake  of  men  who 
feared  more  than  they  dared  to  hope  ;  whose  estimate  of  the  exceed- 
ing sinfulness  of  sin  caused  them  to  dwell  upon  God's  vengeance 
rather  than  His  compassion  ;  and  whose  dread  of  evil  was  so  great 
that,  in  shutting  their  hearts  against  it,  they  sometimes  shut  out  the 
good.  It  is  well  for  us  if  we  have  learned  to  listen  to  the  sweet  per- 
suasion of  the  Beatitudes,  but  there  are  crises  in  all  lives  which 
require  also  the  emphatic  "  Thou  shalt  not  "  of  the  Decalogue  which 
the  Founders  wrote  on  the  gate-posts  of  their  Commonwealth. 

Let  us  then  be  thankful  for  the  assurance  which  the  last  few  years 
have  afforded  us  that 

"  The  Pilgrim  spirit  is  not  dead, 
But  walks  in  noon's  broad  li<>ht." 


APPENDIX.  189 

We  have  seen  it  in  the  faith  and  trust  which  no  circumstances 
could  shake  ;  in  heroic  self-sacrifice,  in  entire  consecration  to  duty. 
The  Fathers  have  lived  in  their  sons.  Have  we  not  all  known  the 
Winthrops  and  Brewsters,  the  Saltonstalls  and  Sewalls,  —  of  the  old 
time  in  gubernatorial  chairs,  in  legislative  halls,  —  around  winter 
camp-fires,  in  the  slow  martyrdoms  of  prison  and  hospital  ?  The 
great  struggle  through  which  we  have  passed  has  taught  us  how 
much  we  owe  to  the  men  and  women  of  the  Plymouth  Colony,  —  the 
noblest  ancestry  that  ever  a  people  looked  back  to  with  love  and 
reverence.  Honor,  then,  to  the  Pilgrims !  Let  their  memory  be 
green  for  ever ! 

Truly  your  friend, 

John  G.  Whittier. 


NOTES. 


1.  — Page  7. 

Extract  from  the  lieco7-(Js  of  the  Pilf/rim  Society,  Plymouth,   Mass. 

Satuisday,  December  15th,  1849. 
Voted,  That  a  Committee  be  appointed,  consisting;  of  J:\mes  Savage,  Charles  H. 
Warren,  Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleft",  of  Boston,  and  Timothj'  Gordon  and  Abraham 
Jackson,  of  Plymouth,  to  consider  the  expediencj'  of  celebrating  in  future  the 
Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  on  the  twenty-first  day  of  December,  instead  of  the 
twenty-second,  and  that  said  Committee  report  at  the  next  regular  meeting,  on 
the  last  Monday  of  May  next. 

Monday,  May  27th,  1850. 
At  this   meeting,    the  Committee  appointed  in  December  last,  to  consider  the 
expediency  of  altering  the  day  of  celebrating  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  pre- 
sented a  full  and  able  Report  on  the  subject,  which,  after  a  general  discussion  of 
the  same,  was  unanimoush'  accepted,  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 

Voted,  That  this  Society  will  hereafter  regard  the  twenty-first  day  of  December,  as 
the  true  anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

A  true  copy  from  the  Records  of  the  Pilgrim  Society. 

William  S.  Russell,  Recording  Secretary. 

The  Committee  of  the  Pilgrim  Society,  appointed,  at  tlie  meet- 
ing in  December  last,  "  to  consider  the  expediency  of  celebrating  in 
future  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  on  the  twenty-first  day  of 
December,  instead  of  the  twenty-second,"  having  duly  considered 
the  subject,  submit  the  following  as  their  Report :  — 

That  the  happy  Monday,  on  which  our  fathers  came,  for  the  first 
time,  on  shore  at  Plymouth  from  the  shallop,  whereiu  they  had 
"  circulated  the  Bay  "  between  Cape  Cod  and  this  harbor,  and,  hav- 
ing on  Friday  preceding  got  to  anchor  under  the  lee  of  Clark's 
Island,  had  there  quietly  spent  the  Sunday,  after  return  of  thanks 
to  God  on  Saturday  for  deliverance  in  their  great  peril  from  break- 
ing the  rudder  and  the  mast,  and  losing  the  sail  —  this  Monday 
when  they  "  marched  into  the  land,  saw  the  corn  fields,  and  running 
brooks,  judged  the  place  fit  for  habitation,  and  returned  to  the  ship," 
as  Bradford,  who  was  of  the  exploring  party,  assures  us,  "  with  the 
discovery  to  their  great  comfort,"  is  the  very  day  that  all  of  us 
desire  to  honor  as  the  birth  day  of  Christian  freedom  and  true 
civilization  in  New  Enjiland. 


192  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

Reverence  for  progenitors,  as  well  as  self-respect,  forbids  us  to 
permit  any  mixture  of  fiction  with  the  great  truths  of  their  story. 
By  any  such  artifice  it  can  never  be  brightened ;  as  it  will  not  be 
darkened,  we  are  confident,  either  by  disreputable  facts  or  evil  sur- 
mises. When  paying  our  ancestors  the  debt  of  gratitude,  we  should 
rather  exclude,  than  encourage,  such  doubtful  traditions,  as  the 
ignorant  are  wont  to  heap  on  important  events.  Who  first  landed 
on  the  rock  ?  was  once  an  idle  inquiry,  thought  to  be  met  by  the 
claims  of  Maiy  Chilton,  till  an  equal  competitor  was  found  in  John 
Alden  ;  —  as  if  each  pretence  were  not  childish  ;  —  as  if  we  did  not 
know,  that  Alden  was  not  one  of  the  twelve  that  first  came  in  the 
shallop,  that  no  woman  was  within  many  miles  of  this  spot  for 
several  days,  and  that  Mary  Chilton,  especially,  was  occupied  in 
attendance  on  her  dying  father,  who  lived  but  two  days  after  the 
little  expedition  left  Cape  Cod  harbor.  Every  incident  of  the 
doing  and  sufi^ering  of  our  fathers  near  that  time  should  be  fresh  in 
our  memories,  as  if  it  had  occurred  last  week ;  and  to  preserve 
exactness  of  date,  most  agreeable  is  the  coincidence  of  this  happy 
landing  with  the  recurrence,  almost  to  an  hour  precisely,  of  the 
Winter  solstice. 

That  memorable  Monday  was  21st  December,  according  to  the 
Almanacs  then  used  by  the  larger  part  of  the  Christian  world,  to 
which  the  residue  of  us,  except  adherents  to  the  Greek  platform  of 
the  church,  have  since  conformed ;  but  in  the  Almanac  of  our 
fathers,  or  old  style,  that  day  was  the  11th  December,  1620.  How- 
ever there  can  be  no  doubt  about  an  identical  day,  let  nominal 
dates  be  ever  so  diverse,  because  the  week  days  will  be  the  same, 
whether  old  or  new  style  be  employed.  Truth  spread  slowly  in  this 
direction.  Since  the  church  of  Rome  reformed  the  Calendar,  on 
advice  of  the  ablest  mathematicians  of  Europe,  forty  years  had  not 
run  to  the  coming  of  the  Pilgrims;  and  the  prejudice,  not  the  wis- 
dom, of  our  King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  in  Parliament  assembled, 
continued  to  reject  the  improvement  one  hundred  and  thirty  years 
longer.  Yet  it  was  not  ignorance,  but  more  blame-worthy  cause, 
that  made  the  numbering  of  days  in  the  mouth  so  ditterent,  between 
England  and  other  nations.  The  practise  of  inoculation  for  the 
small  pox  we  borrowed  from  the  Turks,  many  years  before  our 
repugnance  to  the  Catholic  church  would  receive  from  its  supporters 
needful  correction  of  an  arithmetical  falsehood  in  our  Almanac. 

A  simple  illustration  may  be  agreeable  to  those  who  have  not 
either  leisure  to  follow  a  brief  demonstration,  or  memory  to  preserve 
naked  numbers.     Capt.  Allerton,  when  he  went  home  to  England 


NOTES.  193 

ill  the  Autumn  of  1G2G,  we  may  suppose,  crossed  the  cliannel  in 
December,  to  meet  the  Huguenot  brethren  in  France.  This  was 
the  first  year  since  his  landing  at  Plymouth,  in  which  the  days  of 
the  month  and  days  of  the  week  coincided  with  those  of  1620; 
and  on  Saturday,  9th,  by  his  English  reckoning,  he  must  have 
remembered  the  anchorage  under  Clark's  Island  ;  —  the  sacred  rest 
of  Sunday,  the  lOtli  ;  —  and  the  glad  bounding  upon  land  of  Mon- 
day, the  11th.  Did  he  not  require  his  brethren  in  the  faith  to 
rejoice  with  him  on  the  anniversary  of  religious  freedom,  established 
at  Plymouth,  for  the  first  time  beneath  the  sun,  six  years  before  ? 
Did  he  ask  them  to  mark  the  day  in  their  Almanacs  for  observation 
in  years  to  come  ?  Did  they  not  forthwith  agree,  that  tJiis  day,  the 
21st,  in  theirs,  but  11th  in  Allerton's  count,  must  forever  be  hon- 
ored? Their  Calendar  being  already  reformed,  the  third  jNIonday 
of  December,  1620,  or  1626,  being  the  21st  day  of  the  month,  that 
number  in  the  line  of  this  month  would  indicate  the  exact  day  in 
succeeding  years  of  the  same  or  any  following  century,  1720,  1820, 
or  1920  ;  while  the  unreformed  style,  counting,  as  the  Huguenots  did 
not,  1700  for  a  leap  year,  and  so  twenty-nine  days  in  February,  the 
just  equivalent  of  11th  December,  1699.  by  wiiich  it  should  be 
shown,  that  a  year  was  gone,  must  of  course  be  the  10th  instead  of 
11th.  The  very  year's  day  is  the  one  we  would  reverence.  It  is 
not  the  gathering  crowds  of  22d  of  December,  1769,  the  earliest 
public  observance,  that  we  would  exemplify  ;  but  only  show  our 
admiration  for  the  landing  upon  Plymouth  rock  of  the  blessed  few, 
at  the  Winter  solstice  of  1620,  on  the  day  which  in  the  reformed 
Almanac  at  that  time,  and  since  September,  1752,  in  those  of  Eng- 
land and  of  us,  who  claim  all  the  rigiits  and  more  than  the  benefits 
of  Englishmen,  has  been,  and  for  many  thousand  years  to  come  will 
be,  truly  noted  as  the  twenty-first  day  of  December. 

The  necessity  of  adding  ten,  eleven,  or  twelve,  or  more  days  to 
the  number  of  the  day  of  the  month,  in  old  style,  depends  not  on 
the  time  when  we  inquire  about  the  event  to  which  this  addition 
shall  be  applied,  but  to  the  century  when  that  event  occurred.  In 
the  sixth  century  the  running  of  erroneous  computation  had  made 
only  one  day's  deviation  ;  but  this  uniform  mistake  in  reckoning  of  a 
few  minutes  and  seconds  in  the  length  of  a  year  had  swelled,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  Plymouth  was  settled  by  our  fathers,  to 
ten  days.  Had  this  been  a  century  later,  the  11th  of  December, 
1720,  it  would  require  eleven  days  for  making  our  old  style,  then 
the  legal  one,  concur  with  the  reformed  style,  because  1700  was 
counted  a  leap  year  by  us,  but  not  by  the  most  of  the  Christians 
who  had  before  got  upon  the  right  track.     In  this  nineteenth  cen- 

25 


194  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

tury  twelve  days  must  be  added,  yet,  of  course,  only  to  occurrences 
of  this  century.  \iy  the  Calendar  of  the  Greek  church,  the  day  of 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  is  marked  on  Gth  of  June,  which  in  1815 
was  a  Sunday  ;  and  that  Sunday  of  slaughter  is,  in  all  the  West  of 
Europe,  noted  as  the  18th  of  that  month. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  last  century,  before  the  change  of  suppu- 
tatiou  was  made  by  law,  memorable  events,  as  the  birth  of  Franklin, 
of  Washington,  of  King  George  III.,  of  the  capture  of  Louisburg, 
may  have  been  observed  by  parties  more  or  less  numerous  ;  but  this 
observation,  we  may,  on  a  moment's  reflection,  be  sure,  was  in  each 
case  held,  or  should  have  been,  on  a  day  nominally  eleven  days 
later,  after  the  2d  of  September,  1752, —  because  between  the 
second  and  fourteenth  of  that  month  there  was  no  day  in  the 
Almanac.  The  month  had  but  nineteen  days.  A  date  of  3d, 
or  4th,  or  5th  of  September,  1751,  at  the  end  of  one  year  from  it, 
was  to  be  found  only  as  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  or  sixteenth,  severally. 
Statute  provision  was  simple  enough,  relative  to  rents,  interest  and 
such  things  ;  but  common  sense  was  left  to  regulate  less  important 
matters.  The  last  day  of  old  style,  under  our  law,  being  Wednes- 
day, 2d  of  September,  the  next  day  would  be  Thursday,  whether 
the  law  was  obeyed,  requiring  it  to  be  called  14th  —  or  perverse 
fanaticism  called  it  the  3d.  We  know,  that  a  person  born  on  the 
14th  of  September,  1752,  will  be  ninety-eight  years  old  on  14th 
of  September  next.  Why  then  shall  one  born  one  day  earlier  be 
called  ninety-eight,  (because  his  birth-day  was  Wednesday  2d  Sep- 
tember, 1752,)  eleven  days  before  the  just  fulfilment  of  his  last 
year  ?  Between  one  year  and  its  successor,  settlement  of  this  differ- 
ence is  easy  enough  to  the  humblest  capacity.  The  matter  is  deter- 
mined by  the  exact,  natural  day,  week,  or  year.  Our  common  year 
consists  of  fifty-two  weeks  and  one  day ;  a  leap  year,  of  fifty-two 
weeks  and  two  days.  A  child  born  on  Monday,  31st  August,  1752, 
could  not  be  a  year  old  on  31st  August,  1753,  because  he  had  lived 
only  fifty  weeks  and  four  days ;  for  another,  born  the  next  Monday, 
18th  September  was  his  birthday,  inasmuch  as  there  was  no  7th  in 
that  month,  eleven  days  being  suppressed,  or  cancelled.  On  13ih 
September,  1 753,  the  child  must  be  reckoned  only  one  year  old,  if 
born  on  2d  September  of  the  former  year;  but  one  born  2d  Sep- 
tember, 1652,  would  fill  his  one  hundred  and  one  years  on  12th 
September,  1753,  because  (since  the  century  when  he  was  born  was 
only  ten,  not  eleven,  days  behind  true  reckoning)  he  was  really  one 
hundred  years  old  on  1st  September,  1752.  He  did  not  wait  for 
the  eighteenth  century  to  demand  eleven  days,  for  ten  was  enough, 
of  addition  to  his  date  ;  but  paid  the  difference  of  fare,  one  day,  so 


NOTES.  195 

to  speak,  in  passing  tlirough  the  gate  of  1700,  which  was  reckoned 
a  leap  year  in  old  style,  but  not  in  the  new,  and  better,  computation 
of  these  venerable  divisions  of  time. 

But,  though  the  quantity  of  correction  must  vary  with  the  length 
of  time  in  which  the  error  has  been  growing,  when  the  correction  is 
once  applied,  it  is  done  forever.  Had  our  style  been  changed  in 
the  eighth  century,  three  days  would  have  been  sufficient  to  add  ■, 
while  eleven  were  found  necessary  by  our  law-makers  in  the  last; 
and  in  the  present,  our  Russian  correspondents  are  twelve  days 
behind  us.  We  make  no  more  addition  since  September,  1752; 
nor  did  the  continental  arithmeticians  to  their  less  contribution,  hav- 
ing earlier  adjusted  their  reckoning.  Yet  it  is  sometimes  heedlessly 
spoken  of  as  proper  to  add  twelve  days,  which  is  indeed  renewing 
the  mistake,  and  consecrating  the  ignorance  by  which  the  chronology 
was  corrupted  before. 

In  the  celebration  eighty  years  ago,  this  error  of  one  day  is  easily 
accounted  for.  We  may  well  presume,  that  one  or  more  of  our 
genial  Old  Colony  club,  who  honored  forefathers'  day  with  public 
celebration,  for  the  first  time,  in  1769,  had  served  in  the  memorable 
expedition  of  1745,  against  Cape  Breton,  and  had  for  several 
previous  years  glorified,  in  succession,  the  16th  of  June,  as  the  day 
of  surrender  of  Louisburg.  To  that  numei'al  in  the  Almanac  they 
adhered,  of  course,  for  seven  years  ;  but  they  had  for  the  next 
seventeen  years  been  compelled  to  denote  the  exact  day  of  any  in- 
teresting occurrence  in  that  century  by  addition  of  eleven  days  to 
its  prior  standing,  and  of  course  reached  the  27th  of  June  as  their 
true  anniversary.  Such  enumeration  was  inadvertently  applied, 
instead  of  the  scrupulously  exact  one,  to  the  blessed  day  of  the 
landing,  though  that  event  was  one  hundred  and  forty-nine  years 
before  the  celebration,  and  so  much  nearer  to  the  starting  place  of 
the  perversity. 

■  Of  these  glorious  mile-stones  of  memory  the  consecrations  have, 
in  our  day,  been  numerous ;  yet  the  false  assumption  of  a  day  for 
that  ceremony  has  been  too  frequent.  In  honor  of  the  landing  of 
Endicot,  at  Salem,  on  6th  Sejitember,  1628,  the  Essex  Historical 
Society  took  in  1825  the  same  nominal  6th  as  the  equivalent,  —  an 
error  to  be  explained,  if  not  justified,  by  fondness  felt  for  the  mere 
number,  yet  which  would  have  been  avoided,  if  any  had  inquired 
what  day  was  observed  in  1752,  when  the  Statute  of  24  George  II., 
1751,  said,  there  should  be  no  6th.  For  the  solemn  pomp  of  the 
observation  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  same  happy 
occurrence,  three  years  later,  a  wrong  day  was  again  assumed. 
Instead  of  16th,  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  unhappily  they  took  the 


196  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

18t,li,  whicli  appears,  in  one  sense,  a  worse  error  than  the  former, 
inasmuch  as  it  must  be  more  bIamaV)le  to  outrun  the  truth  tlian  to 
fall  behind  it.  Confident  we  may  be,  at  least,  tliat  when  September, 
1928  comes,  the  citizens  of  Salem  will  not  feel  Ijound  (o  celebrate 
the  19th  day  of  the  month.  Of  this  mistake  the  cause  may,  then, 
be  recollected.  Being  asked,  a  few  days  before  the  festival,  what  is 
the  difference  between  old  and  new  style,  the  greatest  mathematician 
of  our  country  gave  answer,  according  to  the  truth,  in  the  open 
street,  without  more  conference,  in  his  prompt  manner,  twelve  days; 
—  yet  Dr.  Bovvditch  afterwards  said,  when  it  was  too  late,  the 
question  should  have  been, —  what  was  the  difference  two  hundred 
years  ago  ? 

At  the  celebration  in  Charlestown,  of  the  landing  of  Gov.  Win- 
throp,  in  1630,  17th  June,  part  of  the  Salem  error  was  followed, 
and  the  28th  of  June,  1880,  stood  for  its  representative.  By  this 
repetition  of  mistake,  within  so  brief  space,  attention  to  the  subject 
was  attracted ;  and  when  the  two  hundred  years  from  the  naming 
of  Boston  were  ehipsed,  the  late  Judge  Davis,  and  others,  took  much 
interest  in  showing  that  the  7th  of  September,  1630,  found  its  true 
equivalent  in  the  day,  17tli  September,  1830,  selected  for  its  solemn 
commemoration.  If  we  feel,  that  we  have  gone  long  enough  in  the 
wrong  path,  we  may  see  by  this  illustration,  that  it  is  not  too  late  to 
get  upon  the  right.  Another  occasion  for  scrutiny  into  exact  concur- 
rence of  days,  after  so  many  revolutions  in  the  sky,  is  recollected 
but  a  short  time  since.  AVhen  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
resolved  to  honor  the  second  centennial  of  the  confederation  of  the 
four  New  England  Colonies,  and  appointed  the  late  .John  Quincy 
Adams  to  deliver  an  Address  upon  the  importance  of  that  act  of 
19th  of  May,  1643,  his  first  thought,  perhaps  from  association  with 
long  residence  in  Russia,  was  of  the  necessity  for  twelve  days 
required  by  transference  of  that  date  into  our  computation.  But 
by  looking  forward  on  the  line  of  procession  of  the  Greek  church, 
in  which  the  error  increases  by  regular  lapse  of  time,  he  soon  per- 
ceived that  the  same  cause  of  departure  from  the  truth  having  been 
at  woi-k  since  the  vernal  equinox  of  A.  D.  325,  shortly  before  the 
Council  of  Nice  met,  and  having  worked  equally,  would  show 
different  lengths  of  deviation  in  different  times  ;  and  felt  that  the 
path  behind  could  be  made  straight  by  the  same  rule  which  alone- 
must  bring  to  our  standard  the  vexatious  chronology  of  the  Eastern 
patriarch.  In  that  foreign  land  every  letter-writer,  as  he  uses  the 
Old  style,  prays  for  its  correction,  not  so  much  because  our  13th  of 
April  is  their  All-fool's  day  at  St.  Petersburg,  as  because  the  per- 
petuity of  their  reckoning  in  every  four  hundred  years  three  days 


NOTES.  197 

short  will,  in  the  year  of  grace  12000,  carry  the  seasons  one 
quarter  rounrl,  and  so  the  spring  will  be  well  advaneed  on  2 1st  of 
December.  Let  the  perversity  be  continued,  another  equal  term, 
and  the  Almanac  of  the  Czar  shall  dignify  as  the  Winter  solstice, 
the  same  day  that  his  neighbors  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  celebrate 
as  having  the  longest  sunlight  of  the  year. 

In  the  present  question,  it  may  seem,  that  no  important  conse- 
quences will  come  of  our  following  the  right  counting,  when  we 
have  so  long  been  accustomed  to  a  different  one ;  yet  surely  we 
ought  not  to  be  censured  for  feeling  too  proud  to  go  wi-ong,  when 
we  know  the  path  is  wrong.  As  the  exact  equivalent  of  that  11  th 
of  December,  1620,  in  our  English  Almanac,  was  the  21st  of  De- 
cember in  that  of  France,  and  we  have  since  admitted  our  error, 
and  the  correctness  of  the  other  reckoning,  by  solemn  act  of  legisla- 
tion, why  should  we  celebrate  a  day  later  for  that  of  our  fathers' 
landing?  The  truth  should  he  good  enough  for  us  ;  and  that  is  the 
only  reason  for  preference  of  one  to  another.  When  by  habit  the 
right  day  has  become  the  day  of  reverence,  it  will  be  wondered, 
why  the  wrong  was  so  often  observed.  Nest  year,  indeed,  the  true 
anniversary  falling  on  Sunday,  it  may  be  more  conformable  to  New 
England  principles,  to  celebrate  the  following,  or  22d  day  of  the 
month  ;  but  we  presume  nobody  would  desire  a  further  carrying 
forward  of  the  festival  to  the  23d,  though  our  elder  brothers  of  the 
Old  Colony  club,  before  the  Revolution,  once  did  to  the  24th. 

Your  Committee  conclude  their  Report,  which  may,  indeed,  seem 
tiresome  from  its  repetition  of  the  matter  with  so  slight  variations 
as  this  popular  form  made  unavoidable,  by  recommendation  to  the 
Society  of  the  following  Order  :  — 

That  the  celebration  in  future  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at 
Plymouth  be  held  on   the  twenty-first  day  of  December ;  but  when 
that  day  falls  on  Sunday,  then  to  be  held  on  the  twenty-second. 
Respectfully  submitted. 

Jas.  Savage, 
C.  H.  Warren, 
Nathl.  B.  Shurtleff, 
Abraham  Jackson, 
Timothy  Gordon. 


2. —  Page  7. 

Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  born  in  Boston,  is  son  of  Thomas 
Lindall  Winthrop,  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts  from 
1826  to  1832,  who  was   the   son   of  John   Still  Winthrop,  of  New 


1  98  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

London,  who  was  son  ot'  -lolm,  a  memlter  of  tlie  Council  of  Con- 
necticut, and  of  the  Royal  Society,  who  was  son  of  Wait  Still 
Winthrop,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  IMassachusetts, 
who  was  sou  of  John,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  who  was  son  of  John, 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  who  was  son  of  Adam,  of  London, 
afterwards  Lord  of  the  Manor  at  Groton,  in  Suffolk  County,  Eng- 
land, and  died  1623,  who  was  son  of  Adam,  of  Groton,  also  I>ord 
of  the  Manor,  died  1562,  who  was  son  of  Adam,  who  lived  in  1498 
at  Lavenham.  The  second  and  third  Adam,  the  father  and  grand- 
father of  Governor  Winthrop,  were  buried  in  the  family  tomb  now 
bearing  the  family  name  and  arms,  in  the  church-yard  of  Groton 
Church,  in  England.  The  town  of  Groton  in  Connecticut  received 
its  name  from  the  Wiuthrops,  in  honor  of  their  old  family  residence. 
The  name  of  Still,  found  iu  the  Winthrop  family,  is  derived  from 
the  first  wife  of  Adam,  the  father  of  John,  of  Massachusetts,  who 
was  Alice  Still,  sister  of  Dr.  John  Still,  Master  of  Trinity  and 
Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  AVells.  Governor  John  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  was 
born  at  Edwardston,  near  the  family  seat  at  Groton,  Jan.  12,  1587 
(old  style),  arrived  at  Salem,  June  12,  1630,  and  died  in  Boston, 
March  26,  1649. 


3. —  Page  8. 

Under  the  direction  of  the  Finance  Committee,  a  guarantee  fund 
was  raised  by  subscription,  amounting  to  sixteen  hundred  dollars, 
to  defray  such  expenses  of  the  Celebration  as  the  receipts  from  the 
sale  of  dinner  and  ball  tickets  might  fail  to  meet. 


4.  — Page  17. 

The  ode  of  Hon.  John  Davis  is  here  printed  as  revised  and 
corrected  by  its  author  about  fifty  years  after  it  was  written.  What 
is  now  the  third  verse  was  not  included  in  the  original ;  what  is 
now    the    sixth    verse    was    originally    the    fifth,    and    written    as 

follows  :  — 

Columbia,  child  of  Heaven  ! 
The  best  of  blessings  given 

Rest  on  thy  head  ; 
Beneath  thy  peaceful  skies. 
While  prosperous  tides  arise, 
Here  turn  thy  grateful  eyes, 

Revere  the  dead. 

In  the  original,  the  first  verse  was  repeated  at  the  end. 


NOTES. 


199 


5.  — Page  23. 


MUSIC 


Composed  by  C.  A.  White,  for  the  Hymn  written  by  Wm.  T.  Davis. 


Andante. 


^<rc-» 


:Bit: 


--^- 


« — * — aF-^ — :  - 


-» — * — i 


aEEj 


'-•r^ 


Soprano. 


g — 0 y 1 


1.  To  thee,    O  God !  whose  guiding  hand  Our      Fathers  led  across    the  sea,        And 

2.  To  thee,    0  God !  we      lift  our  eyes,      To      thee  our  grateful  voices      raise ;        And, 

M   Alto. 


fe 


:1: 


jinMz 


-*>T-*- 


J=J=j=ifz:'z:E?=d=:?v:jE!='=E^ 

m     m     m  ^   ^ 


T=t  = 


S    Tenor. 


3t:p=i-3t 


:iX=f5rp^ 


— I j 1 _ ^ 1 _ , , , — , — j c^ y^' 


ggpEj 


1    To  thee,    O  God!  whose  guiding  hand  Our      Fathers  led  across  the         sea,        And 
2.  To  thee,    O  God  !  we       lift  our  eyes,      To    thee  our  grateful  voices       raise ;       And, 

Bass. 

.0 . . — 0  •  -0- 


-0—0 — #i-#- 


t=: 


■     V  I  j     W    ,    I  i,  I     V   I,      |,  1     V  ,     ti    J         I  I    J         I  .]     ^  I        M  1^   ^  )■ 


agp=: 


.-J- 


-1^ •- 


hd       ■     -< 


-« — ? — «- 


200 


PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


'^M^z^:^i^0^m^$S.^BB^- 


brought  them  to  this  barren  shore,  Where  they  might  freely  worship  thee;  To  thee,  0  God,  whose 
kneeling  at  thy   gracious  throne,  Devoutly  join  in  hymns  of  praise.  Our  Fatliers'  God  1  in- 


brought  them  to  this  barren  shore.  Where  they  might  freely  worship  thee ;  To  thee,  0  God,  whose 
kneeling  at  thy    gracious  throne,  Devoutly  join  in  hymns  of  praise.  Our  Fathers'  God!  in- 


s* 


-0 0—0^0' 

It:    I    T    U: 


:,^_,__^- 


-• — 0 — 0 — 0- 


-0^^-M-V—f^ 


-S>-^ 


^lim-^ 


-0-0-  ■0--0--0--0-^^-0--0--0--0-^-0-  ||-#-     ^^'        tt*" 


'=-=d: 


iip^;=? 


i — 


3EE 


O— ? 1 f 


:«-? 


-« ■* «•;- 


^^^^M^^^^^^^0^^^ 


anil  sustained  Their  footsteps  in  this  desert  land.  Where  sickness  lurked  and  death  assailed  And 
cline  thine  ear.  And  listen  to  our  heartfelt  prayer;  Surround  us  with  thy  heavenly  grace.  And 


ann  sustained  Their  footsteps  in  this  desert  land.  Where  sickness  lurked  and  death  assailed  And 
cline  thine  ear.  And  listen  to  our  heartfelt  prayer;  Surround  us  with  thy  heavenly  grace,  And 


ii|: 


^r=^ 


-0'-0- 


4-i — ^-l-^i^ — 0 — ^ — *-p* — *— *  i-*-i — ^—0—^ — ■- — h; — h 


-^    ■0-     ^  •*•■#—•■■*■  -+  — (■— h—h-H--^— (■-+  -•■ 


NOTES. 


201 


ff     Chorus. 


foes  be-sct    on    ev'ry  hand;     To  thee,  O  God!  we  lift  our  eyes,  To  thee  our  grateful  voices 
guard  us  with  thy  constant  care.  Our  Fathers'  God !  in  thee  we'll  trust;  Sheltered  by  thee  from  every 


^I: 


-^rt — : 1 — ly— 


-:tv— h 


a — I — i_^n_zr5^j._  j^ — ,_i_m_h~,-h — . — i — Sf-n — \ — i— ?— P|-h --N-#i— 


ff 


foes  be  -  set  on   ev'ry    hand ;     To  thee,  0  God !  we  lift  our  eyes ;  To  thee  our  fateful  voices 
guard  us  with  thy  constant  care.  Our  Fathers'  God !  iu  thee  we'll  trust;  Sheltered  by  thee  from  every 


:rN-rN- 


1^.=-=^= 


-•-- 


>^i=q=^=^ 


— ?l_;;i_;i__i^_i_ — __t: 


raise,  And,      kneeling  at  thy  gracious  throne,  De-voiit-ly  join  in  hj'mns  of    praise, 
harm,  We'll     fol-low  where  thy  hand  shall  guide,  And  lean  on  thy  sustaining  arm. 


-•— »- 


jjt:-jJ—t— -—-'-£#!-•— J—*— f'z:fzT*~f?~f:z::zi5i:zr^iiE 


raise.    And,      kneeling  at  thy  gracious  throne,  De-vout  ly  join   in  hymns  of    praise, 
harm,  We'll       fol-low  where  "thy  hand  shall  guide.  And  lean  on  thy  sustaining    arm. 

^srvit ' 1— T — ^ — ^ : r — »— s-^yr-* — j—0—»—0 — 0—0—»—t 1 r 


— (•  '-^A-  — t*-r      — h  '5*-  -^^      -^  ''-^  — fV-       H#~  —^—t-'r 


SI 


:?—•-? 


t-T^^= 


26 


3— ?-&=5=Hz:fEL*==fz«zS=[ 
)i tzH ^ izil i 1 


202 


PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


6.  — Page  115. 
BILL    OF    FARE. 


Soup. 


Chicken  (with  Pork) . 
Cold  Pressed  Corned  Beef. 


33oiIcti. 


lEntrccs. 


Escalloped  Oysters. 


Succotash. 


Mutton  (Caper  Sauce). 
Cold  Beef  Tongue. 


Chicken  Salad. 


Worcestershire  Sauce.  "  Walnut  Ketchup. 

Leicestershire  Sauce.  Mushroom  Ketchup. 

India  Soy.  Cauliflower. 

London  Club  Sauce.  Mixed  Pickles. 

3^oast. 

Lamb.  Sirloin  Beef.  Turkey.  Goose. 

Chicken.  Sugar-cured  Ham.  Mutton. 


Potatoes. 
Turnips. 


Fegctaiilcs. 
Beets. 

Cranberries. 


Squash. 

Onions. 


Celery. 


Pastvg. 
Plum  Pudding,  (Wine  Sauce). 

Plain,  Frosted,  and  Fruit  Cake. 
Maccaroni  and  Cocoa  Cakes. 
Chess  Cake. 


Apple  Pie. 

AVashington  Pie. 
Squash  Pie. 

Pumpkin  Pie. 


©csscrt. 

Vanilla  Ice  Cream.  Strawberry  Ice  Cream. 

Apples.  Raisins.  Assorted  Nuts. 

Assorted  Confectionery. 

Coffee.  Tea. 


7.  — Page  115. 

"In  1623  the  Colony  of  Plymouth  was  reduced  at  one  time  to 
one  pint  of  corn,  which,  when  divided,  gave  five  grains  to  each 
person." 


NOTES.  203 

8.  — Page  117. 

It  is  well  known  that  not  one  of  the  Pilgrims  returned  in  the 
*'  May-Flower."  In  connection  with  this  vessel,  it  is  proper  here  to 
say  that  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  to  authorize  or  justify  the 
loose  statement,  sometimes  made,  that  she  was  engaged  in  the  slave 
trade  after  her  return  to  England.  All  that  is  known  of  this  famous 
vessel  is,  that,  at  different  times,  she  hailed  from  London,  Yar- 
mouth, and  Southampton,  and  not  only  brought  the  Pilgrims  to 
Plymouth,  but  was  one  of  the  four  vessels  which  transported  Mr. 
HiGGlNSON  and  his  company  to  Salem  in  1629,  and  one  of  the 
fleet  which  conveyed  to  New  England,  in  1630,  John  Winthrop 
and  the  early  settlers  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony. 


9. —  Page  125. 

October  25,  1632,  Governor  Winthrop,  with  Mr.  "Wilson, 
pastor  of  Boston,  was  carried  by  Mr.  Pierce,  of  the  ship  "  Lyon," 
in  his  shallop,  to  Weymouth,  which,  under  the  aboriginal  name  of 
Wessaguscus,  Wessaguscussett,  Wessagussett,  Wichaguscussett,  or 
Wessagusquassett,  had  been  settled  in  1622,  by  a  small  colony 
under  Thomas  Weston,  which  was  broken  up  the  following  year. 
The  next  morning  the  party  journeyed  on  foot,  pursuing  the  Indian 
trail,  over  very  much  the  route  of  the  present  Plymouth  and  Bos- 
ton I'oad.  They  passed  what  was  then  and  is  now  called  Hewes' 
Cross,  at  Curtis'  Mill,  on  the  third  herring  brook  on  the  boundary 
line  between  South  Scituate  and  Hanover,  named  after  John 
Heaves,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  Scituate,  and  crossed  the 
Indian  Head  branch  of  North  River  at  a  ford  about  a  mile  above 
the  bridge  on  the  Boston  road,  which  Winthrop  called  Luddam's 
Ford,  after  his  guide,  who  carried  him  on  his  back  across  the 
river.  This  place  is  now  known  by  the  name  of  Ludden's  Ford ; 
and  Deane,  in  his  History  of  Scituate,  says  he  has  no  doubt  that  the 
guide  was  James  Ludden,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Weymouth. 
Their  route  from  the  North  River  was  through  Pembroke  and 
Kingston.  See  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  i.  p.  91 — Barry — First 
Period  —  p.  198  ;  and  Deane's  Scituate,  pages  160  and  162. 


10.— Page  127. 

John  Endicott  was  born  in  Dorchester,  England,  in  the  year 
1588.     He  sailed  from  Weymouth  in  the  ship  "Abigail,"  June  20, 


204  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 

1628,  and  arrived  at  Naurakeag,  the  place  of  destination,  on  the 
6th  of  September  following.  He  died  in  Boston,  March  15,  1665. 
Francis  Higginson  had  been  a  non-conformist  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Of  Jesus  College  and  St.  John's,  Cambridge, 
and  subsequently  rector  of  a  church  at  Leicester,  he  had  been 
deprived  of  his  benefice  for  non-conformity.  He  arrived  at  Naura- 
keag June  30,  1029,  was  chosen  teacher  soon  after  his  arrival,  and 

died  in  1630. 

— • — 

11.  — Page  127. 

April  12,  1632,  Governor  Winthrop  received  letters  from  Ply- 
mouth, stating  that  Capt.  Standish,  having  a  fight  with  the  Indians 
at  Sowamsett,  needed  powder,  an  article  of  which  Plymouth  Colony 
was  then  destitute.  The  Governor  sent  the  messenger  back  with 
as  much  as  he  could  carry,  —  to  wit,  twenty-seven  pounds.  In 
August  following,  Thomas  Dudley,  Deputy-Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, made  public  charges  against  Governor  Winthrop,  the 
second  of  which  was  that  he  had  lent  powder  to  Plymouth  Colony 
without  authority.  To  this  charge  the  Governor  answered,  "  It 
was  of  his  own  powder,  and  upon  their  urgent  distress,  their  own 
powder  proving  naught,  when  they  were  to  send  to  the  rescue  of 
their  men  at  Sowamsett." 


12.  — Page  130. 

TJie  Compact  signed  in  the  cabin  of  the  May-Floioer  in  Cajje  Cod  Harbor. 

In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We  whose  names  are  underwritten, 
the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign  lord.  King  James,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland  King,  defender 
of  the  faith,  etc.,  having  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and 
advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  honor  of  our  King  and 
country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony  on  the  northern  parts  of 
Virginia,  do,  by  these  presents,  solemnly  and  mutually  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God  and  one  of  another,  covenant  and  combine  ourselves 
together  into  a  civil  body  politic,  for  our  better  ordering  and  pres- 
ervation, and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid ;  and  by  virtue 
hereof  do  enact  constitute  and  frame  such  just  and  equal  laws, 
ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as 
shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient  for  the  general  good  of 
the  Colony ;  unto  which  we  promise  all  due  submission  and 
obedience.     In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunder  subscribed  our 


NOTES. 


205 


names,  at  Cape   Cod,  the  11th 

sovereign  lord.  King  James,  of 
eighteenth,  and  of  Scotland  the 

Mr.  John  Carver 8 

William  Bradford 2 

Mr.  Edward  Winslow      ...  5 

,,    William  Brewster    ...  6 

,,    Isaac  Allerton     ....  6 

Capt.  Miles  Standish       ...  2 

John  Howland 

Mr.  Stephen  Hopkins      ...  8 

Edward  Tilly 4 

John  Tilly 3 

Francis  Cook 2 

Thomas  Rogers 2 

Thomas  Tinker 3 

John  Ridgdale 2 

Edward  Fuller 3 

John  Turner 3 

Francis  Eaton 3 

James  Chilton 3 

John  Crackston 2 

John  Billington 4 

Moses  Fletcher 1 


of  November  in   the  year  of  our 
England,  France  and  Ireland  the 
fifty-fourth,  anno  Domini  1 G20. 

John  Alden      .     . 

Mr.  Samuel  Fuller 
,,  Christopher  Martin  .  .  4 
,,  William  Mullins  ....  5 
,,  William  White  ....  5 
,,    Richard  Warren 

John  Goodman 

Degory  Priest  . 

Thomas  W'illiams  . 

Gilbert  W^inslow    . 

Edmund  Margeson 

Peter  Brown     . 

Richard  Britterige 

George  Soule   . 

Richard  Clarke 

Richard  Gardener 

John  Allerton  .     . 

Thomas  English    . 

Edward  Dotey . 

Edward  Leister     . 


This  list  of  names,  with  their  titles,  is  taken  from  Governor 
Bradford's  manuscript.  This  accounts,  probably,  for  the  omission 
of  the  title  of  "  Mr."  to  his  name.  The  figures  opposite  each  name 
designate  the  number  in  each  family  ;  and  the  four  persons  whose 
names  have  no  numbers  against  them  are  included  in  the  families 
of  some  of  the  others. 


13.  — Page  141. 

The  words,  "  treasures  hid  in  the  sand,"  quoted  from  the  19th 
verse  of  chapter  xxxiii.  of  Deuteronomy,  and  often  used  in  allusion 
to  the  Pilgrims,  sometimes  has  reference  to  the  abundance  of  shell- 
fish with  which  they  were  supplied,  and  sometimes  to  the  corn 
which  the  Indians  had  buried  in  the  sand,  some  of  which  was  dis- 
covered by  the  exploring  party  sent  out  from  Provincetown  on 
Wednesday,  the  15th  of  November,  1620,  "under  the  conduct  of 
Capt.  Miles  Standish,  unto  whom  was  adjoined,  for  counsel  and 
advice,  William  Bradford,  Stephen  Hopkins,  and  Edward 

TiLLEY." 


206  pilgrim  anniversary. 

14. —  Page  142. 

General  John  Winslow  was  the  great-grandson  of  Governor 
Edavaud  Winslo"\v.  He  was,  in  1740,  a  captain  in  the  expedition 
to  Cuba,  and  was  engaged  in  the  enterprises  against  Crown  Point 
and  Nova  Scotia,  and  to  the  Kennebec,  in  the  two  French  wars. 
His  agency  in  the  removal  of  the  Acadians  from  Nova  Scotia, 
in  1755,  is  well  known,  at  which  time  he  was  a  half-pay  captain  in 
the  British  army  and  a  major-general  in  the  militia.  In  this  affair, 
Winslow  acted  under  written  instructions  from  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Charles  Laavrence,  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  cannot  fairly  be 
charged  with  inhumanity.  In  1756  he  commanded  eight  thousand 
New  England  men  against  Montcalm,  and  in  1762  was  appointed 
commissioner  with  William  Brattle  and  James  Otis  to  deter- 
mine the  easterly  boundary  line.  He  died  at  Hingham,  in  1774, 
aged  seventj'^-one.  See  Sabine's  Loyalists  of  the  Revolution, 
vol.  ii.  p.  439. 

— ♦ — 

15.  — Page  158. 

Plymouth  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been  named  by  the 
Pilgrims  after  Plymouth  in  England,  which  was  the  last  place  from 
which  the  "  May-Flower  "  sailed.  It  is  stated  by  Palfrey,  in  his  His- 
tory of  New  England,  vol.  i.  p.  94,  that  John  Smith,  on  his  return 
to  England  from  his  expedition,  in  1614,  sent  a  copy  of  a  map  of  the 
New  England  Coast,  from  near  the  mouth  of  the  Penobscot  to  Cape 
Cod,  to  Prince  Charles,  afterwards  Charles  the  First,  who,  at  his 
solicitation,  gave  names,  principally  of  English  towns,  to  some 
thirty  points  upon  the  coast.  The  names  of  Plymouth,  Cape  Ann, 
and  Charles  River,  have  permanently  adhered  to  the  places  they 
were  selected  by  the  Prince  to  designate. 


16.  — Page  162. 

Edward  Winslow,  Jr.,  nephew  of  General  John  AVinslow, 
graduated  at  Harvard  University  in  1765.  In  1774  he  was  one  of 
the  two  clerks  of  the  Court  of  General  Sessions  of  the  Peace  and 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  Plymouth  County.  In  1775  he  joined 
the  Royal  Army  at  Boston,  and  became  a  colonel.  In  1778  he  was 
proscribed  and  banished,  and  in  1782  was  Muster-Master-General 
of  the  Loyalist  forces.     After  the  war,  he  settled  in  New  Brunswick, 


NOTES.  207 

and  was  a  member  of  the  first  Council  in  that  Colony,  vSurrogate- 
General,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  finally  Administrator  of 
the  Government.  He  died  at  Frederickton,  in  1815,  aged  seventy 
years.  He  resided  in  the  house  in  North  Street,  in  Plymouth, 
called  the  Winslow  House,  with  his  father  Edward  Winslow,  who 
built  it.  Edward  Winslow,  the  father,  graduated  at  Cambridge  in 
1736,  was  one  of  the  clerks  of  the  Court,  Register  of  Probate,  and 
Collector  of  the  Port  of  Plymouth.  He  left  the  country  with  his 
family  in  1776,  and  went  to  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  where  he  died 
in  1784,  aged  seventy-two  years.  See  Sabine's  Loyalists  of  the 
Revolution,  vol.  ii.  p.  445. 


17. —  Page  186. 

The  name  of  Lady  Akbella  Johnson  has  been  incorrectly 
spelled  by  even  such  writers  as  Neal,  Hutchinson,  and  Trumbull, 
by  whom  it  was  called  Ai-ahella.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Thomas, 
third  Earl  of  Lincoln,  who  was  descended  from  a  family  that  came 
into  England  with  William  the  Conqueror.  Her  brother,  Theophi- 
lus,  became  the  fourth  Earl  on  the  death  of  his  father,  January  15, 
1619.  She  married  Isaac  Johnson,  and  came  to  Salem  with  her 
husband,  in  company  with  Governor  Winthrop,  in  the  "  Eagle,"  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  tons,  cari'ying  twenty-eight  guns  and  fifty 
men,  whose  name  had  been  changed  to  "  Arbella,"  in  compliment 
to  her.  She  arrived  on  the  12th  of  June,  and  coming,  as  Hubbard 
says,  "from  a  paradise  of  plenty  and  pleasure,  which  she  enjoyed 
in  the  family  of  a  noble  earldom,  into  a  wilderness  of  wants,"  sur- 
vived her  arrival  only  a  month.  Her  husband,  Isaac  Johnson,  was 
the  richest  man  of  the  colony.  According  to  Sewall,  he  died  Sept. 
30,  1630,  in  Boston,  and,  at  his  own  request,  was  buried  in  what  is 
now  King's  Chapel  burial-ground.  The  people  manifested  their 
respect  for  his  memory  by  ordering  their  bodies  to  be  buried  near 
him ;  and  in  this  way  the  spot  became  a  burial-ground,  and  has  so 
continued  to  this  day.  Other  writers  claim  that  he  died  in  Charles- 
town,  and  doubt  the  authenticity  of  the  tradition  relating  to  his  burial. 
See  Eliot's  Biographical  Dictionary,  p.  281 :  and  Young's  Chronicles 
of  Massachusetts,  p.  218. 


208  PILGRIM    ANNIVERSARY. 


HYMN. 

Written  by  Capt.  Nathaniel  Spooner,  of  Plymoutyi. 

Great  God  of  all !  in  humble,  grateful  prayer 
Wc  conic  before  Thee  now  on  bended  knee, 

And  thank  Thee  that  Thou  didst  our  Fathers  spare 
From  the  wild  dangerts  of  a  wintry  sea. 

We  thank  Thee  tliat,  when  dangers  greater  far 

Encompassed  tlieni,  that  brave  hearts  might  appall, 

Thou  didst  support  them,  and  didst  let  the  Star 
Of  Hope  shine  on  their  hearts  and  strengthen  all. 

And  we,  their  children,  on  this  joyous  day, 
No  longer  peril-driven  or  tempest-tossed, 

Approacli  Thy  throne  in  tliankfulness,  and  pray 
Our  Fathers'  bright  examples  be  not  lost. 

May  we.  like  them,  have  strength  and  courage  given ; 

Bear  bravely  up,  e'en  though  we  feel  the  rod  ; 
Know  that  a  life  well  spent  leads  on  to  heaven. 

And  duties''  paths  are  but  the  paths  to  God. 


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